Memories Reborn
by Axel Cutlass
Summary: FINAL TWO CHAPTERS UP! This is it. Will Max save the world again? Will she rekindle her love with Fang? Read and find out.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This idea was inspired by Kingdom Hearts II. I do not own Maximum Ride or KH II, although it would be pretty cool if I did.

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I woke up with a headache. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer and repeatedly hit me with it.

I managed to slide out of bed and walked around my room a little bit in my blue nightgown, holding my head. After a few minutes, the pain slowly died down. I couldn't remember the last time I had a headache like this.

I walked over to the window and opened it, the orange dawning sun shining right into my face. I winced at it, making me wonder why I even opened it.

I started getting dressed, putting on some blue jeans and a large blue shirt that had slits in the back of them for my wings. They were specially made for me by my mother so I wouldn't have to cram them in my shirt.

"Max, are you up?" called my mother.

"Yeah, I'll be down in a sec," I said back.

I couldn't believe how cool my mom was with my wings. In fact, everyone I knew was pretty cool with me having wings, as long as I didn't use them to cheat at games or racing them anywhere.

I headed downstairs and into the kitchen where my mother was making English muffins. I didn't have a father. Well, I know I have one but he wasn't around here. My mom told me that he just went away somewhere and disappeared. She never told me anymore and always tried to change the subject. I figured something bad happened and it just pained her to talk about it, so I never pried.

I sat down at the kitchen table and she passed me a paper plate with two toasted muffins on it. Then she gave me a dish of butter and a jar of jam.

"So what are you doing today Max?" she asked.

"Nothing much," I said, "I'm just gonna hang out with the gang over at the treehouse."

"Oh, well that sounds nice."

I was on summer vacation from school. Everyday I would be doing something with my friends, Jacob, Celia, and Kevin. We had been friends for what seemed like a long time. We had a little treehouse in Jacob's backyard that we hung out in a lot.

When I finished with my breakfast, I got up and started heading outside.

"All right, I'm gonna head out," I called out.

"Okay, be careful," she said.

I opened the door and then I unfurled my wings and took off. It always felt so good to fly. I just loved it.

I looked over the town. It was called Roland City. It was a fairly small town but it was really nice. It had a great arcade, a really good pizzeria, and the museum they had was pretty nice.

It seemed like it was perfect for me.

I came to Jacob's backyard and flew into the treehouse. There the others were waiting.

"Hey, look who flew in," said Jacob.

"You know, that is really getting old," I said.

"Well, if you didn't fly into the treehouse all the time, I wouldn't have to say it."

"Whatever."

Jacob was seventeen like me, his blonde hair always reflecting the sun. He was taller than me but not by much. Not like Fang.

Wait a minute, I didn't know anyone who was taller than Jacob. _Okay, get that out of my head_.

"All right, so what are we going to today?" asked Celia. She was a year younger than me and had strawberry blond hair.

"We could go down to the arcade," said Kevin. He was eighteen, the oldest of us all, but he was the shortest. He only made it to my shoulder.

"Nah," said Jacob, "we went to the arcade a couple days ago. I say we go to the beach."

"Yeah, the beach sounds good," said Celia excitedly, "What do you think Max?"

"I think the beach is a good idea," I said.

"All right, it's settled," said Jacob, "we're going to the beach."

So we got out of the treehouse and headed down to the beach on our bikes. I could've flown but I didn't want to leave the others behind or make them feel bad.

So we made it to the beach. There was a nice, cool breeze and the gentle waves were really soothing. There were a couple of people scattered here and there, but there weren't any nearby.

We all sat by the water and had some small talk about this and that.

Looking at the sand and water was almost hypnotizing. I could picture one of those corny romance novel covers. Then I pictured me in one of them, only I was kissing some boy with black hair. And he was really beat up for some reason.

Yikes, I let my mind wander way too much.

As we sat looking into the sky, a man suddenly came up to us, "Excuse me," he said. He was wearing a suit and sunglasses.

We all turned around to look at him.

"Yeah," I said, "can we help you?"

"Which one of you is Max?" he asked.

"I am," I said.

Suddenly, the man grabbed me by the neck with his big right hand. He had a really strong grip. I grabbed his hands and tried to dig into it with my nails. It didn't seem to affect him at all.

"You are coming with me," he said through gritted teeth, "but I need you unconscious."

I tried to fight back but his grip was just too strong. My vision started to fade as my air left me.

For the last few seconds, I felt something strange on his hand. It was starting to fell hairier, and I could swear I felt claws digging into my neck. In my fading vision, I thought I saw his face turning wolf-like.

Suddenly, a flock of seagulls came and started attacking the wolf man. He let go and I dropped to the sand, bringing in much-welcomed air. The seagulls chased the man away, pecking at him. It was really strange but I wasn't complaining.

After catching my breath, I looked over at my friends who were still sitting on the beach.

"How come you guys didn't stop him?" I asked. I wasn't mad that they didn't help. I wouldn't have blamed them for being scared, but I was still curious.

"Stop who?" asked Celia.

"The guy who was choking me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Kevin. "There was no guy."

"What?"

"There was no guy choking you. Just that guy in the suit who walked by us, asking us the time. If there was someone who was trying to hurt you, I think we would stop them Max."

I couldn't believe it. Did I just imagine that guy choking me? And why did he start to look like an Eraser?

Wait a minute, why did I just call him an Eraser? What the hell was going on?

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A man in a lab coat and glasses with long white hair sat in a chair, surrounded by many computer screens.

Behind him, someone walked up to him wearing a black hoody sweatshirt with the hood up and blue jeans. "What was that?" he asked.

"An Itex crony," said the man in his deep voice, "I can't believe it. They found us."

"What do we do now?"

"We continue as planned."

"Why can't we just put in her memories all at once?"

"We've talked about this before. It could do serious damage to her mind. We need to place them slowly. At the rate we've been proceeding, it would take a week, but I suppose we could speed it up a little bit. Time is of the essence now."

"Whatever you say, Doc."

Doc turned around to face the hooded person, "By the way, we need to talk. Who are you really?"

The hooded person staggered a bit, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I think we both know you're name isn't Nick. If we're to form trust, I think it would be fair if I knew you're true name."

The hooded person stared at Doc for a moment. Then he lifted off the hood, revealing a half-morphed Eraser face.

"It's Ari."

Doc began to start laughing for a little bit, and then he said. "It's a pleasure to be working with you Ari."

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Well, have I intrigued you? Am I boring you? Please review. It's my first fanfic. 


	2. 2 A Familiar Stranger

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Okay, that's over with.

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The next day, I was still a little shaken by the guy who tried to strangle me. I decided not to tell my mother because nobody seemed to have known it happened. Plus, I didn't want to worry her.

I woke up again with a splitting headache. It seemed worse than the last time but after a little while it died down. It wasn't like the headaches I used to have that made me throw up.

Wait, I never had headaches like this before. What is going on with me?

After I showered and got dressed, I went downstairs and my mother was making breakfast. It was waffles this time. She gave me a plate of them with some butter and syrup.

"So, what are you doing today?" she asked.

"Well, there's the dance competition in the town square today," I said, "Jacob is taking part in it and we're gonna cheer him on."

"Oh, well that sounds nice."

After I finished, I went into the living room and started reading the newspaper. I was kind of bored and wanted something to do before the competition started.

Reading through it, there were some nice stories; a new bakery opening, a man found a briefcase full of money underground. There was rarely any bad news in Roland City. Afterwards, I went right to the comics.

After about an hour, I put the paper down and started to head out.

"I'm heading out Mom," I called.

"Okay, be careful, and have fun," she said.

I went out the door and unfurled my wings and flew off toward the town square. I always felt a little bit bad that everyone else had to walk or drive and I could fly. But then again, flying is pretty cool. I just wish I had my flock. I missed them.

Wait, I never had a flock. I only have Jacob, Celia, and Kevin. What is going on with my mind?

After some flying, I made it to the square. A lot of people were already there. There was a square wooden stage in the middle that the people surrounded. There was music playing, I guess to set the mood. I landed in the back of the crowd so I wouldn't land on anybody's head.

Nobody made a big deal about me flying in. Everyone knew about me so it wasn't really surprising. Still, it was strange nobody had crazy reaction. Not like when I was at that restaurant in New York. Everyone freaked when me and the flock flew away.

_Gah!_ Why do I keep having these thoughts? I've never been to New York. Have I?

I started walking through the crowd, looking for Celia and Kevin. Jacob would be somewhere else with the other contestants.

After some bobbing and weaving, I managed to find them right next to the stage.

"Hey, guys," I called.

They both turned around and saw me. "Hey," they both said.

"You made it," said Kevin.

"Is it about start?"

"Yeah," said Celia, "any minute now."

Jacob was a pretty good dancer. I thought he had a good chance of winning. So did Celia and Kevin.

After a few minutes, somebody walked onto the stage with a microphone. "Roland City, are you ready TO ROCK!!!!" he screamed out.

He was answered with a tidal wave of screams and cheers.

"It's time to see who will become the next Roland City Dance Champion. The winner will be decided by whoever gets the loudest cheers from the audience. Now, let's bring out our contestants."

Ten people came out, four girls and six guys, Jacob being one of them. The announcer introduced each one of them and one by one they started dancing. Each of them had three minutes to show their moves. And they did. They were all really good.

But it turned out that it was Jacob who stole the show. Everyone was really impressed with what he pulled off.

He had the loudest cheers. He was no doubt the winner.

After the announcer made him the winner, he was given this really nice trophy. Then Jacob invited us up on the stage.

We all climbed up and celebrated with him. I was so proud of him for winning.

Then he did the most shocking thing. He got off the stage with the others and made me stay on it and said, "Your turn to dance."

"What?" I asked, completely embarrassed.

"You dance," he encouraged.

"I can't dance for crap."

"Yes, you" He suddenly stopped talking. And then I noticed that everyone suddenly stopped cheering. I looked around at all the people who were surrounding the stage. They all seemed as if they were frozen the way they were. Like time had just stopped.

What the hell was happening? It was bad enough I was having weird thoughts. Now this?

"Yeah, you never really could dance Maxie," said a voice from behind me.

I turned around to see someone on the stage with me. He had short, red hair and ocean blue eyes. He looked about my age and was tiny bit taller than me. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a grey vest and dark blue jeans. He also had a tattoo over his right eye. It looked the cent sign around his eye, except the ends were pointed, making it look a little demented.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"You mean you don't remember me," he answered, "it's me, Asch."

Suddenly some image of him crossed my mind. I was with him and so were some other people I didn't recognize. We were in a lab.

He was starting to seem familiar but I didn't know why.

"It's not familiar to me," I somewhat lied.

"Oh, man. I don't believe this. You still don't remember," he said.

"What is going on here? Are you doing this?"

Suddenly there was some loud echoing noises, and I could have sworn I saw rifts form in the air for a second.

"Uh-oh," said Asch, "Listen, I need you to come with me, one way or another, then you'll hear the whole story."

He got into a position like he was ready to fight.

"I don't just run off with people I don't know. That's something I learned in first grade."

Asch let out a small chuckle, "Nice to see you haven't changed Maxie."

"Stop calling me Max_ie_. It's just Max, thank you."

"What do you mean? You used to let me call you that all the time."

"How could I have done that? I don't even know you."

Asch sighed. He seemed somewhat sad that he was doing this. "Guess we're doing this the hard way, huh?"

Suddenly, some images came across my mind. It was me giving a kick to an Eraser. And then me punching another. And then me giving a roundhouse kick to another.

And then all of a sudden, I knew how to fight. I could take this guy on no problem.

I got into a fighting stance. I was ready for him.

Asch smiled, "That's more like it."

He then charged me. He came at me swinging his fists. I was able to duck and block every shot, and then I hit an uppercut right on his chin. He staggered backward and then I gave him a kick square in his chest.

He fell to the ground but rolled through and got back on his feet. He was quick. He came right back and gave me a right cross that had me seeing stars. Then he spun and gave me a kick right to the temple. He was strong.

I still managed to stay on my feet. I blocked a hook but he caught me with another cross. But then I grabbed his arm and kneed him in the stomach. Then I gave him a straight punch to the face.

He staggered back holding his mouth. He took his mouth away to see that he was bleeding from his lip.

He was about to charge me again but then a voice stopped him. "You there," it said, "What are you doing here?"

We both stopped and looked to where it came from. There was a man on the stage. He had a white lab coat with white hair and glasses.

"Damn it," said Asch. He put his index finger to his ear and said, "Lily."

Suddenly some sort of rift opened up behind Asch and he stepped through it. It then closed up and he was gone.

"Maximum," said the man, "don't listen to that boy. You know who you are. I'm terribly sorry this happened." Then he faded away and was gone.

What in the hell was going on? Who was that Asch person? Who was that other guy? And why was that Asch person familiar to me when I know I had never seen him before in my life?

Suddenly there was loud cheering again, people urging me to dance. Much to their disappointment, I got off the stage. I was too freaked out.

"Aww, come on Max," said Jacob, holding his trophy.

"No thanks," I said.

"All right."

"Hey, what happened to your shirt Max?" asked Celia.

"What?"

She pointed to my right shoulder. I looked down on it. It had a tear in it and it was surrounded by black, like it had been charred or burned. Where did that come from? Did it come from Asch?

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"Who was that?" asked Ari.

"I don't know," said Doc, sitting in his chair, "but he clearly has some sort of connection to Max."

"I've never seen him before in my life, and I've been with Max a lot."

"I know, but she had a memory of him cross her mind. There's only one explanation I can think of that makes sense."

"What's that?"

"This is not the first time Max has had her memories erased."

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Well, what do you think? Please review. 


	3. A Little Help

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Oh man, that was so hard.

I woke up the next morning with yet another headache. I didn't know what was worse, these headaches or the crazy things that had been happening to me.

It was like somebody was shoving bricks in my head.

It was really, really bad this time. I lay in bed clutching my head. _Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, where are you?_

Who were these people? Why did I suddenly know them?

Were they my flock?

The pain finally subsided and I felt a lot better. But now I knew these five other people like I had known them all my life. But I had never been out of Roland City.

After showering and getting dressed with that weighing on my mind, I went downstairs.

Once again, she had breakfast ready for me. This time it was bagels with cream cheese. She passed them to me on a paper plate.

"Good morning," she said.

"Good morning," I said back.

"So, what are you doing today Max?" she asked robotically. I can't believe I haven't noticed it before, but every morning it was the same routine.

After eating, I started to head out, saying, "I'm going to meet the gang."

"Okay," said my mother, "be careful." Same thing as always.

Instead of flying, I decided to walk. My mind was just too warped to concentrate on flying.

I walked through the town, trying to sort out my thoughts. I was just not feeling well, in my head anyway. I don't think I used to feel this bad even when I had that voice in my head.

Oh great, now I thought I had a voice in my head. Does that make me twice as crazy?

Eventually I ended up in a shopping plaza. Lots of people were walking around with bags in their hand or looking through windows.

Then I came across Kevin and Celia. They were holding a couple of bags.

"Hey, look, it's Max," said Celia.

"Hey guys," I said half-heatedly.

"Hi Max," said Kevin, "Celia dragged me along to go shopping with her. All this stuff is hers."

"Oh man," I said.

"Please," said Celia, "I don't have that mu", Celia suddenly stopped talking. She was frozen. Everyone around me was frozen again.

"Oh, no. Not again," I said.

I looked around me looking for Asch. But he wasn't around. Instead, to my surprise, I found a little girl coming up to me. She looked about maybe eight or nine years old. She had blonde hair with green hair. She was wearing a white tank top with a pair of jean shorts.

And here was the strange part. She had wings! Like me! They were tan with brown spots and brown at the ends.

"Hello, Max," she said.

"Uhh, hi," I managed to say. "Uhmm, who are-" She lifted her hand to get me to stop.

"I just wanted to meet you, at least once," the little girl said, "I mean, you disappeared when I was only three years old, so I never really got to know you."

I couldn't come up with anything to say. I know I was starting to remember all these people for some reason, but this girl wasn't coming to mind.

"Well, bye," she said and walked off.

"…much. Stop exaggerating," Celia finished, startling me. The whole plaza was abuzz with action again.

"Wait, did you just see that little girl?" I asked them.

"Huh? What little girl?" Kevin asked.

"The one with the blonde… oh, never mind." There was no point in dragging it on. I knew they didn't see it. Something was going on, and I didn't like it.

"Well, we'll see you later, Max," said Celia, "still got more shopping to do."

"Ugh," said Kevin, and they walked off.

Asch, the man with white hair, and now this little girl. That made three people I didn't know who seemed to know me pretty well.

I walked through the plaza some more when I bumped into somebody.

"Oh, excuse me," I said. I looked up at the person. And to my horror, it was the guy who tried to strangle me the other day. The one who turned into that Eraser thing.

"Well, there you are," he said in his deep creepy voice. "We've been looking for you."

_We've_, I thought.

I looked behind me to see three more guys in suits and glasses like him. I was surrounded. It looked like I had to fight them.

Just then, some strange rift opened up in the wall near me, and out popped the little girl.

"Come with me, hurry!" she cried. For some reason, going with her seemed better than going up against four brawny goons. So I followed after her.

I ran through the rift as the Erasers tried to come in. But it closed behind me just before they could get through.

"Sorry about that," said the girl, "there was no way you'd have been able to take those four on by yourself. Not in the condition you're in."

"Thanks for getting me out of there," I said, "but who are you? And how did you do that?"

I took a look around the room I was in. The walls were a baby blue and the ceiling was white. All around the room were pictures taped to the walls. They were done in crayon or marker.

"My name is Lily," she said, "I have the power to cross dimensions. That, plus I can fly, like you."

"Do you know what's been happening to me? Why I've been remembering all these people all of a sudden?"

"Yes."

After a moment, I said, "Well, are you going to tell me?"

"I don't know if I should."

"Why not?"

"Because Asch told me you're not ready to know yet."

"Asch!?"

"Oh, no," said Lily, covering her mouth, "I wasn't supposed to say that."

"How do you know Asch?"

"He's my friend. He takes care of me. And he's an avian-human like me. We stick together."

I could understand that. This girl almost reminded me of Angel. I started to look around the room some more at all the drawings.

"Did you do these?" I asked.

"Yeah," she answered, "I like to draw."

Then I came across a picture that startled me. I was a picture of me… and Asch, and we were holding hands!

"What is this?" I asked, almost shouting, even though I didn't mean to.

"It's just a drawing."

"Lily, how does Asch know me? What was he trying to do to me yesterday?"

Lily hesitated for a moment, her feet shuffling against each other. Then she said, "Asch thinks you're being used by the bad people, the whitecoats. He wants to get you away from them so they can't do whatever they want to do."

Suddenly, the term whitecoats rang a bell with me. That's what I called those scientists who made me.

"So he tried to kill me?"

"No, he doesn't want to do that. But he will if he has to. You're his best friend, Max."

"What?!"

"Oh, no. I wasn't supposed to say that either. I'm sorry."

"Lily, I don't mean to sound mean, but how could Asch be my best friend? I've never met him before."

"Lily," a voice cried out. I recognized it. It was Asch. "Lily, I need you for a minute."

"Oh, no," said Lily, "You've got to get outta here."

She opened up a rift in back of me. "You'll understand soon Max," she cried, "I promise."

"Lily, I-" but she cut me off.

"I promise. Now go."

With no choice, I stepped through the rift. When I came out the other side, I was back in front of my house, left with more questions than I had before. I was so frustrated, I wanted to cry.

I wanted to know why I was being put through this hell. I wanted to know who I was.

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Ari stood in the field in the night, the cold breeze nipping at his half snout. He had been waiting for about a half an hour.

Suddenly, a rift appeared a few feet from him and Asch stepped through. "Sorry I'm late. I had trouble getting away. So, what did you want to talk about?"

Ari turned to face Asch, "Doc says that her memories should be fully restored by tomorrow."

"All of them?"

"All of them, even the ones of you and your flock. It'll be like she has two pasts. It will be hard for her, but it just might be useful."

"That's great, but I still don't trust that Doc guy you're working with."

"I know, but I've got no choice but to trust him."

"Trust him? He made you become this-"

"I know. I KNOW! But that was my fault. I did it for her."

"You're right, I'm sorry. But listen to me Ari, if I catch one whiff of Itex, I go down there and I take her out. I don't want to do it, but if I have to, I will."

"I getcha. But don't make the mistake of thinking you're the only one who cares for Max. If you do kill her, the next time we meet, one of us will die."

"The circle of revenge never ends."

"I wish I could convince Doc of that."

"Well, we'll see what tomorrow brings."

"I got one more thing to say to you, Asch."

"What?"

"If you don't have to kill her, don't tell her about me."

"Why not?"

"Just don't. I don't want her to know what happened to me."

"All right. I won't tell her. I promise." With that, Asch put his hand to his ear, pressing his communication mic, "Lily," he spoke into it. A rift opened up behind him and he stepped through, leaving Ari alone, praying Max would be all right.


	4. I Am Maximum Ride

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. That's good ol' JP's job, and he does it well.

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In my sleep, I had these terrible dreams. All of these images and names kept swirling about, like a snowglobe. 

Itex, Re-evolution, Jeb Batchelder, Anne Walker, Ari, Ella Martinez, Dr. Martinez, Sam, Lissa, Max II.

I suddenly remembered all these people. How they've helped me, how they've hurt me, and how they have affected me throughout my life. But Asch and Lily were still an enigma to me.

I forced myself awake. It was morning, the sun shining through my window.

I got out of bed and quickly got dressed, not bothering to take a shower. I quickly ran downstairs to my mother who was in the kitchen. She was making breakfast again.

"Mom, do you know who I am?"

She kept working at the counter like she didn't even hear me.

"Mom!?"

No response. I went to touch her shoulder and then the most disturbing thing happened. My hand went through her, like she was a ghost. As my hand went through her, her body around her faded.

I quickly pulled my hand out. I was so freaked out. What was happening now?

I ran out of the house and flew into the sky. Quickly, I flew to the treehouse. I flew right on in.

"Guys," I cried to them, "something strange is going on."

Jacob, Celia, and Kevin all seemed to be pre-occupied with something. They were laughing about something, but I couldn't hear them. Then all of a sudden they ran towards me. But they ran through me like ghosts and climbed out of the treehouse. They were just like my mother.

No, she wasn't my mother. My mother was still out there somewhere.

And those people weren't my friends. Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel were my friends. And our dog Total.

This whole town wasn't real somehow. Everything always worked in my favor. I can't believe I never noticed it before.

I knew who I was. I was Maximum Ride. Two years ago, me and the others stopped Itex in a huge explosion. But then all of a sudden, it just went from that to me being here in Roland City.

I jumped out of the treehouse. I needed to find my way out of this town somehow.

Suddenly I heard a strange noise behind me. I turned around to see a rift, Lily's rift, but instead of Lily coming out, it was Asch.

"Maxie," he said, "look at what it's coming down to. I'm gonna have no choice but to kill you if you don't come back with me."

"Wait," I said, desperately trying to remember him from my past, "We're best friends, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm not about to let Itex use you for their project just because… wait a minute, you remember me now?"

"Uhh, yeah," I said weakly. I still didn't remember him.

"That-that-that's great… but, aww, I gotta make sure, so uhhh, uhmm… I know. What are the names of the rest of our flock?"

I tried to remember. I really tried, but they just wouldn't come to me.

I just stood there, not saying a word, not being able to remember people who were supposed to be my friends.

"No?" Asch sighed. "Dammit, I can't believe this. Sorry, Max."

He unfurled his wings. They were a dark brown color. But they were different from mine. They were skinnier, almost like a hummingbird's.

Wait a minute. Hummingbird?

It started to come back to me. Asch was special, he had hummingbird DNA put into him rather than from normal birds or hawks. Which meant-

Suddenly, Asch was a centimeter from my face, his fist even closer. POW! I must have flown back five feet before I landed on the ground.

That was a detail I could have remembered two seconds earlier. Asch has super-speed. But unlike mine, he can control it way better than I can.

I got up, ready to take him on again, when suddenly a familiar voice called out, "There she is; get her."

I looked to my right. It was the Erasers from before. They found me again. When they came, they began to morph into their wolf-like form.

"Erasers?!" yelled Asch.

He charged one of them. He landed a kick in one's stomach and then he kneed him in the jaw. Then he spun around and landed an elbow in another Eraser's face.

The one who tried to strangle me approached me. "You know," he said, "you're becoming a real pain in my ass."

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you. Choking a person out can really get on one's nerves."

He took a few swings, all of which I ducked. The other came from behind me and wrapped his large arms around me. But I mule kicked him in his groin. Then I delivered a kick right to the other one's chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"How does it feel to have the air cut off from you?"

I got in some punches on the one behind me, and then I jumped in the air and gave him a straight kick to the face, knocking him out.

I looked over to Asch who was giving the last Eraser a roundhouse kick to his neck, snapping it. The Eraser slumped to the ground.

He turned to face me. He charged at me again. But then he suddenly stopped, as if he was frozen in time.

Oh, no. It was happening again. A large voice came booming from the sky, "Max, go to the abandoned manor at the north end of the town. The time has come."

The voice sounded like that old man from the dance competition. I knew where the manor was that he was talking about. I figured I should probably go. I may have been able to find the answers I was looking for.

I flew off towards it. It only took me a few minutes to reach it. I landed at the doorway. What I was looking for may have just been beyond it.

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Asch went through with the attack, but Max suddenly disappeared.

"What the-?"

He looked around to see that Max was nowhere to be found.

"I don't believe this," he said to himself, "he's luring her in. They're just using her and there's no way I can stop it. I got no choice, I've got to take her out."

Asch knew where Doc was operating from; the old manor in the north. He started flying towards it.

"Fang, I'm sorry."

* * *

Thanks for the reviews. Keep 'em comin'. 


	5. Duty Before Friendship

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. That's just the way of life.

I opened the door to the manor. As I walked inside, I saw that the place was really beat up. The walls were once white but they were turning brown from decaying paint. There was a collapsed table right in the middle of the foyer. The place had really gone to hell.

I walked through it carefully, making sure I didn't fall through a rotted part of the floor. I also wanted to keep an eye out for more Erasers.

I didn't know why that old man wanted me to come here, and I was starting to think it was a bad idea.

Those thoughts were soon confirmed as at least half a dozen Erasers came out of the dark, in their wolf form.

I got ready to fight them. I thought I could take them on by myself. But just then, somebody jumped down from the upper story and landed on their feet between me and the Erasers. He was wearing jeans and a black hoody. The hood was up so I couldn't see his face.

"Max," he said. Geez, how many strangers knew who I was? "That door over there," he pointed to his left, "that's where you need to go."

Impulsively, I ran towards it and opened it. I looked back to see the guy get ready to fight the Erasers.

I closed the door and went down the stairs. It was very dark, but at the bottom, I could see this blue light. When I came to the bottom, I was in a computer room. There were a whole bunch of screens surrounding the room. Some of them had a whole bunch of information that I didn't understand. Others seemed to have data on a certain person.

Then on another screen, I figured out who that person was. It was me.

There was an outline of me on a screen. It showed things like my vital signs, heartbeat, and some other things I didn't understand.

All of a sudden I had a splitting headache, like the ones I had been having the mornings before, not the ones that made me throw up. But this was the worst one yet.

I fell to my knees, gripping the sides of my head.

A bunch of images flashed through my head. I was in a lab, with five other kids, most of them younger than me. There were images of us talking together, laughing together. There were images of us being experimented on, but it wasn't miserable. Me and the scientists were even talking with each other and laughing, like we were enjoying each other's company.

Some names came across my mind: ShawCorp., Counter-Breed, Dr. Ken Albert.

Then each member of the flock came into my mind.

Lily, who was only three years old, learning how to cross dimensions. She liked to make rifts that were feet apart from each other. It drove the scientists crazy, especially Dr. Albert.

Then there was Conrad who was five years old. His wings came from an eagle. Conrad could read minds just like Angel could. Only he couldn't make people do things like she could.

Then I remembered Calypso. She was nine and Conrad's older sister. They were the kids of two of the scientists at ShawCorp. She had telekinesis. She could make objects move simply by using her mind.

Then there was Sebastian. He was eleven years old and a super-genius. He could absorb information like a sponge, and he always had random facts for everybody.

And then there was Asch, my best friend. We were closer than anyone else in the flock. He was a year older than me, making him thirteen at the time I was remembering this group. He had hummingbird DNA and could move at super-speed. But he had another ability. I just couldn't think of it.

Then I remembered when he fought me at the dance competition. Celia pointed out that I had a burned tear in my shirt.

And then it hit me. Asch was pyrokinetic. He could create fire with his mind. And he was good at it. Now doubt he's better at it now.

The pain went away and I knew all these people like the back of my hand. But at the same time it couldn't be possible. I had spent all my life at the School with Fang and the others.

It was so frustrating and confusing. How could I have had two lives?

I got back on my feet and walked through the room some more. There was another open doorway.

I went through it and came to a large, open room. It was blue like the last one. There was a doorway on the other side of the room. I started to head toward it when it opened and Asch came out of it.

He slammed the door behind him and said, "Hi, Maxie."

"Asch, wait," I said, "I remember everything now. I remember you, I remember Sebastian, the others, Counter-Breed, everything."

"Well that's just great Max," he said, "that's JUST GREAT!!"

Suddenly a large circle of fire surrounded the two of us. It reached all the way to the ceiling. The heat picked up fast and sweat almost immediately formed on my face.

"Too bad you're too late," he said, giving me a death stare. I think I understood the purpose for the tattoo around his eye. It made him look scarier, especially when he was looking to fight.

He spread his wings and started flapping them, slowly hovering to about a foot in the air.

My head started to hurt again. I couldn't help but hold it. Images of me practicing fighting with Asch came into my head. Then I knew all of his moves, I knew how to fight him. The pain stopped and I was ready.

"Come here Maxie! I'll make all that pain go away!"

He charged but I was able to dodge him. He was incredibly fast but I knew how he moved. I was able to dodge his attacks. But not for long.

He caught me with a hook and then kicked me in the stomach when I was in midair, slamming me to the ground. I got up and blocked another one of his shots, and caught him square in the chin. He staggered backward and then I jumped in the air and landed a kick in his chest.

I started charging him, putting him on the defensive. We both took to the air with fists flying. But he swooped away from me, but I charged him and landed my fist in his stomach, making him hunch. I clasped my fists and then hit him in the back, sending him back to the floor, hard.

I came back down but he got out and shot a stream of fire from his hand right at me, I barely dodged it and then we were at a standoff.

I could almost feel my sneakers start to melt, the heat was so intense. "Nice to see you still remember all of my moves Maxie. But here's something you don't know."

He started to form large rings of fire around his hands. Then he threw them at me. I ducked the first one, but the second one caught my left shoulder as it flew past me. Then they came back toward me. One caught my right forearm and the other caught my left side beneath my armpit.

I looked back to Asch to see he was making them go back and forth. He sent the rings back at me. I managed to duck them every time he sent them back. One of them went outside the circle and I heard it cut something. A lead pipe fell into the ring.

He made the rings fade away. And shot at me, hitting me in the face and he came back faster, punching me in the back. He came back and forth, hitting me each time he passed, and I couldn't even see him.

Then I looked at the lead pipe on the ground. It was sharpened at the point where Asch cut it. He charged me from behind again, hitting me in the middle of the back. Quickly, I picked up the pipe and swung it like a bat.

I hit my mark.

The pipe sliced him in the side of the stomach, just above his hip. He fell to the ground.

The fire around us began to die down. He must have been in a lot pain to lose his concentration.

He turned and faced me and managed to get on his knees. He put his hand to his hip. Blood was oozing from the wound. I may have cut his liver or one of his kidneys.

He looked up at me. He suddenly looked so weak. "Maxie," he said.

Suddenly another memory came to me. It was the last one I had of my other flock, of Asch.

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I was twelve years old. I climbed the stairs to the roof of the lab. I opened the door and saw Asch sitting at the edge of the building, staring at the sunset. He would have been thirteen now.

I walked over to him and sat next to him.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," he answered.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Just watching the sunset. It's nice, isn't it?"

"That's _all_ you're doing?" I said, facing him.

"Well, I have had something on my mind lately."

"That's a nice change." I said, starting to laugh.

"Ha ha ha. I've been thinking, what if we do stop Itex and Re-evolution like we're meant to. What then?"

I sat there thinking for a minute. He was right. There was nothing else set for us after we served our purpose.

"I don't know," I said.

"Exactly."

"I'm sure we could do something. I know, we could travel the world. See it for real rather than from a computer screen."

His face seemed to lighten up and he smiled, "Yeah, we could go on real adventures. Just the two of us."

"The two of us? I meant the whole flock."

"Oh!" he said, sounding very startled, "Well, that works too. Okay, let's shake on it. We'll all go on adventures and see the world, together."

We both spit in our hands and brought them together, shaking them.

Afterwards, he said, "Oh, by the way." He pulled out two freezie pops. "I swiped them from the freezer, cherry or apple?"

"Cherry, of course," I said, grabbing it from his hand. We opened them up and started slurping them, staring out at the sunset.

"Hey," said Asch, "what would you think if I got a tattoo?"

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I looked at Asch on the floor. The next memory was my life at the School. I couldn't help but feel bad that I had hurt him now. We made a promise.

"Asch…" was all I could get out.

Asch smiled up at me, "You know, I don't think I've ever been happier to lose a fight."

He was starting to gasp now. He was really in pain.

"Max, Maxie, don't let Itex take you again." Then he put his hand to his ear and weakly said, "Li-ly."

One of Lily's rifts opened up behind him and he staggered through. And then Asch, my very first friend, was gone.


	6. Reunion, Almost

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. No, really, I don't.

* * *

After the flames Asch made died out, I walked through the door into the next room. 

It was a hallway. I walked through it. At my left there were these giant chambers that lay on the floor. They looked like giant refrigerators. They all had glass windows in them. They were all empty.

I came to the end of the hall, but when I looked at the chambers, the last four had people in them. It was my flock. Angel was in the first one, Nudge in the second, then Gasman, and then Iggy. But there was no Fang.

I tried to open the chambers, but it was no use. Maybe there was a way to open them in the next room.

I walked into it to find a giant machine occupying the whole room. In the center of it was some sort of chamber, but it wasn't like the ones in the other room.

A voice suddenly boomed from behind me, "Ahh, there you are Maximum."

I looked behind me and saw the old man who scared Asch away at the dance competition. I could have used him earlier.

"What's going on here?" I asked, "I know you know something. Who are you?"

"I am a servant of the world. As are you."

"Servant?"

"Of course. You were made to save the world. And now the world is in need of your help again."

"What do you mean?"

"Itex is up to no good again. It is up to Maximum Ride to stop them, again."

"What about my friends? My flock?"

"They will assist you, of course. However, those ones you saw in the other room are not real. You see, this world you're in right now is not real, as you seem to have figured out. It is a virtual reality program I created for you. The only thing real in it is you. I'm not even real. I'm just a program."

"But why did you do that?"

"To keep you safe from Itex. They are the ones who erased your memories. It was some sort of safety device they put in your mind in case Re-evolution failed. I had my assistant find you and bring you here. I installed a program into your mind that would turn off that safety device and restore your memories. I had to speed up the process though, because you were found. I'm sorry for that stress I caused you by the way. And then there was that shocking side effect: you remembering your time at ShawCorp and Counter-Breed."

"So, then, you know what happened to me. You know why I was suddenly put into Itex from ShawCorp."

"Unfortunately, I do not. Asch probably knows. He certainly seems to have a strong connection to you. I wouldn't doubt he knows everything there is to know."

"So what happens now?"

"Now, I need you to step into that machine so I can transport you back into the real world."

I looked at the machine. It was a little scary looking. Then I looked back at the man and said, "What about the others?"

"Don't worry. They'll be in the next room in those sleep chambers. My assistant should be deactivating them now. Now, if you please, step into the machine."

I walked into the chamber of the machine. "Thanks," I said.

"You're quite welcome. Again, I'm sorry for this stress I caused you."

Suddenly I was surrounded by a white light. All I could see was white.

After a minute, the light disappeared and I was in the same room as I was in before. But I knew it was different. It was real, I could tell. Maybe it was just my bird instinct.

I stepped out of the machine. The old man was gone. I headed into the next room.

The sleep chambers were still there. I looked at them for a minute. They hadn't been turned off. For a second I thought that old man had lied to me. But then I heard these mechanical sounds. The chambers were starting to open up.

The doors automatically opened up and then the flock got out of them, all yawning.

Angel was the first to see me. "MAX!" she cheered and ran right toward me, giving me a huge hug. It was followed by Nudge coming in, then Gazzy, and then even Iggy joined in. We showered each other with "I can't believe it's you"s and "We missed you"s. It was so sappy.

"Man, that was some nap," said Iggy.

"What happened to you, Max?" asked Gazzy, "you look you've been through hell."

"You know," I answered, "you could say that."

"What happened to Max? What happened to us?" asked Nudge.

"I don't know," I said, "I'm in the process of trying to figure that out."

"Hey," said Angel, "my clothes feel tight."

I took a good look at all of them. All of their clothes were too small for them. How long had they been in those chambers?

"Oh, man," said Gazzy, "I feel like my clothes are suffocating me… and I gotta…"

We all smelled the rest of sentence.

"Well, there's one thing I didn't miss," I said, covering my nose.

"Geez, Gazzy," said Iggy, "we come out of a long sleep just for you to knock us out again."

"We got to get out of this manor," I said.

"Oh, it's not that bad," said Gazzy.

"No, I mean we have to get out so we can figure out we're gonna do next."

"Oh."

So we all walked through the basement of the manor. We made it to the computer room when I spotted an envelope that had MAX written on it.

I went to the desk, grabbed it, and opened it up. There was a note inside. There first thing it said was to read the note aloud to the rest of the flock.

"Max, some things have happened in you and the flock's absence and I need to fill you in. Three years ago, you and the flock stopped Itex, but Jeb and Anne got away. About a year after that, you went missing. The flock looked for you but they couldn't find you-"

"Oh, yeah," said Nudge, "I remember that now."

I gave her a look saying that it was rude to interrupt.

"Sorry, go on."

"Afterwards, Fang disappeared from the group, probably to look for you. While he was gone, the flock was kidnapped and brought to those sleeping chambers that you found them in. It's been two years since that happened. So right now, you, Fang, and Iggy are seventeen, Nudge is thirteen, Gasman is eleven, and Angel is nine."

"WHAT!" cried Nudge, "You mean I became a teenager and I missed it?! I can't believe this. I hung on the day I became a teenager and now I missed it. This isn't fair."

"Oh, sorry about that Nudge," I said, "but it's kind of out of our hands."

"It's still not fair."

"It wasn't fair that I got my eyesight taken away from me, but you don't see me complaining."

Nudge was actually silent for a moment. Then she said, "Okay, good point. Sorry. I guess I'm just a little cranky from my sleep. Uhh, keep going Max."

"If you're reading this Max, this might sound a little crazy, but you need to find Asch. He'll be able to fill the holes in what's going on. Don't worry; he's not your enemy. He won't try to hurt you again. Inside this envelope you'll find a credit card. This one is unlimited and the payment will be taken care of. There's also a map. Right now, you're in Timber, Montana. I don't know where Asch is, but I know you can find him. Good luck."

"Who left that note for us?" asked Gazzy.

I didn't know. It couldn't have been that old man. He could have just told me all this in the virtual world.

"Fang?" asked Angel.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Maybe it was Fang who left the note. It's just a feeling I have."

"Maybe, but why would we talk about himself? But then again, he's a clever writer. He did keep the blog for us. But I don't know."

"So who's this Asch person?" asked Iggy, "Somebody you know?"

"You could say we've had a couple run-ins. Don't worry, I'll explain it later."

I took the card out of the envelope and left the note on the table. "Right now, we need to get some new clothes."

So we all got out of the manor and took to the sky. I knew where I needed to go. I just wish I knew where it was. But still, it felt great to be flying with the flock again. It was just like it used to be.

Well, almost. There was one part of the equation missing. And it was the part I missed the most.

* * *

Please, keep on reviewin'. 


	7. Back on Track

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Is there an echo in these disclaimers?

* * *

Flying through the air, I kept my eye out for a city where we could find a clothing store. But a city in Montana is an oxymoron. 

But eventually, we did find a town that had a mall. We found some woods about a half-mile away from it and landed.

We walked over to the mall, trying to look inconspicuous. But when you're wearing clothes two sizes two small or that look like you jumped through an erupting volcano, you're bound to get a few stares.

We walked into the mall. It wasn't very big. At the end there was a JCPenny. It was better than nothing. "Okay, guys," I said, "Now don't get carried away. Just get a casual outfit. I don't know what sizes you guys are, so just keep trying until you got something that fits. Nudge, no playing dress up, and Angel, no mind control. And Gazzy, if you gotta let a bomb like earlier, go to the bathroom."

So we all split up looking for whatever clothes we needed. I went over to the women's clothes section with Angel and Nudge while Gazzy and Iggy went to the men's.

I found a nice red short-sleeve shirt and a pair of light blue jeans. I also remembered my half melted sneakers and went over to get a new pair.

I went into the changing room to see if they all fit. After taking off my shirt, I found that my left bra strap had been ripped. It must have been when Asch hit me in the shoulder with his fire ring. I always hated shopping for bras and panties. I always felt so embarrassed.

After trying the clothes and seeing that they fit, I came out of the changing room. I saw Nudge and Angel going through shirts, smiling and giggling about something. Without them seeing, I slipped into the girls' underwear section. Quickly, I looked for something in my size.

Don't let someone see me, don't let someone see me, and for god's sake, don't let the flock see me.

After what seemed like forever, I found a pair that fit me. I decided I would pay for these before the others picked out their outfits. I went to the registers and found an open one. A guy with a bored look on his face was at the register. He had bad acne which he looked like he picked at a lot.

I put my stuff on the counter. He took it and scanned it without even saying hello or asking how I was doing.

He told me my total and I gave him the card and he slid it through the scanner.

Please let it work, please let it work, please let it work.

And then the card worked. The man handed the card back to me and then said, "What happened to you? You get in a fight?"

A few seconds of hesitation and then, "Yes, yes I got in a fight."

"Well, you might want to consider cleaning yourself up before going out looking like you've been through hell."

"And you might want to consider Clearasil before going out with your face looking like a dartboard."

I took my bag full of clothes and left him to chew on that for awhile.

I found the girls with some clothes. Nudge had a blue shirt with some nice black pants. She even got some reasonable shoes. Angel got some blue jeans like mine, only her size, and had a pink shirt with a teddy bear on it. It was cute, but I couldn't let her have it.

"Angel," I said, "I know this a little awkward for you, but you're not six anymore, you're nine. I think you should wear something a little more appropriate to your age." I hated doing this to her, but I couldn't help but feel she needed to move into something a little more mature. I had to rush her into being more mature. This losing two years had to affect her the most.

Of course, she was probably reading that in my head.

Angel sighed and put the shirt back. She then found a pink blouse. Everything had to be pink with her. I figured that it was all right and nodded my head yes. She smiled and gave me a hug. She also had some white sneakers with her that were nice.

Now it was time to check out the boys. This would probably be even more difficult.

We found them in the shirts section. "Max?" asked Iggy.

"What?"

"What color are the shirts I'm holding?"

"Didn't Gazzy tell you?"

"Yeah, but I don't trust him."

"Aww, c'mon," cried Gazzy, giggling a bit.

Iggy was holding two shirts. One of them was tie-dyed. The other was pink that said "Real Men Wear Pink".

"You're wise not to," I said. I took the shirts from him and hung them back up on the rack. "What color do you like?"

Iggy just gave a blank stare.

"You're right, dumb question." I had been away from them way too long.

I found a light brown short-sleeve shirt that was about his size. I gave it to him. "Here, you go. This will work for you."

Iggy had a pair of boots with him. Gazzy had a white shirt with a pattern of black stripes on it that made it look like a tiger. He had blue jeans and black sneakers as well.

"All right, now that we're all set, let's get out of here."

We all went to the registers. I decided to avoid the one I had been to earlier and found another one. There was a lady there who greeted us and was very nice. If she noticed how awkward we looked, she didn't say it.

I paid for everybody's things with the credit card and we took our bags and got out of the store. Inside the mall, I told everyone that I wanted to sit down on a bench for a bit.

"Why? You getting another headache?" asked Iggy.

"No, I just got to check out this map so we can figure out where we are."

I pulled out the map from my back pocket and opened it up. I looked for Timber on it and found it. Good, so now I know where we were. Now, the note said I needed to find Asch, but I didn't know where he was. So how could I find him? A lot of help that was.

I looked at a clock on the wall. It read 1:57 p.m.

"Guys, I think we should find a place to stay for today and tonight so we can figure out what we're gonna do."

"Sounds like a good idea," said Iggy, "considering how we have no idea what we're doing."

So we left the mall and started walking around town looking for a motel. We got plenty more odd looks from people walking around.

Finally, we found one that was decent looking enough. We went inside to find a man at a desk watching television. We walked up to the desk and he gave us our 78th weird look.

"Can I help you kids?" he asked.

"Yes, we'd like a room," I said.

"Our rooms can only fit up to three people."

"Then we'll get two."

He stared at us for a minute, and then he said, "Its thirty bucks a night for each room."

"Fine," I said, pulling out my card. I gave it to him and he scanned it and gave it back to me. He went to the key rack and pulled out two sets of keys.

"You have rooms A-4 and A-5," he said.

"Thank you," I said, taking the keys.

We walked over to the rooms. "So, how do you want to split up?" I asked, "Boys and girls? Youngest from oldest?"

"Well, you know I can't replace Fang," said Iggy. He probably felt the glare I was giving him because then he said, "Sorry, bad joke."

So we split into boys and girls.

For most of the day, I studied the map, thinking of where in America we could possibly go, except for when we all changed into our new clothes and went to get Burger King later in the evening.

At 9:00 at night, I was ready to give up. I had absolutely no clue as to where I could find Asch. I had no clues whatsoever.

Suddenly, my head started to hurt. I was getting another one of those headaches. This one wasn't as bad though. I had images of a little girl. I had saved her life from a bunch of bullies. Then I was at her house, meeting her mother. She gave me cookies, really good cookies. And she was a doctor.

As the pain went away, it came to me. Dr. Martinez and her daughter Ella. We could go there. They would definitely let us stay with them. I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

Everybody was in the same room watching TV. "Okay, guys," I said, "I know where we're going."

"Oooh, where?" asked Nudge.

"We're going to Arizona."

"Not to the school, I hope," said Gazzy.

"No, there's somebody somewhere else in Arizona that I know that will surely take us in. But it's on the other side of the country, so I suggest we got to bed now so we can get an early start."

"You certainly know a lot of strangers you haven't told us about," said Iggy.

"You know me. People just gravitate to me. So, c'mon. Bedtime."

"All right, good night," Iggy said as he and Gazzy went to their room. Angel and Nudge got into their beds. I helped tuck Angel in. I didn't care how old she was, she still felt like my little girl.

"Good night," I said to them both.

"Good night," they both said back.

I climbed into bed and went to sleep, knowing that our new adventure was to begin tomorrow.

* * *

R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R 


	8. Ella Enlightenment

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Can you hear me now?

After checking out of the motel and having breakfast, the flock and I returned to the woods where we landed and took off, heading south for Arizona.

It was about 9:00 a.m. I figured it would take us about six hours to get to Ella's house, including a stop for lunch and bathroom breaks.

During the flight Iggy came up to me and asked, "So, you still never told us who this Asch person is we need to find."

"He was someone I met while I was away," I said, "He's an avian-human like us although, we didn't have the most peaceful of meetings. I guess he knows what Itex is up to now."

"What do you mean 'not the most peaceful of meetings'?"

"I mean, every time we met each other, we ended up fighting each other."

"So how do we know we can trust this Asch person?"

"I think we can. It looks we were on the same side the whole time. I just didn't see it at first. I know it's a little confusing now. But when we meet him, everything will make sense."

"All right Max. We trust you."

So after a long flight that had no problems and no Erasers for a nice change, we made to Arizona at about three-thirty in the afternoon.

After some searching through my mind for exactly where Ella and her mom lived, I finally remembered and headed towards it.

I was so excited that I would get to see Ella again. It had been a long time but I hoped she still remembered me. But then again, a girl with wings who saves your life is kind of hard to forget.

We found the house and came in for a landing at the front. We came to the door and I rang the doorbell.

After a moment, the door opened and Dr. Martinez was at the door. "Can I help you all?" she asked.

"Dr. Martinez," I said, "it's me Max."

She stared at me intently for a few seconds and then said, "Oh my gosh, Max, it is you. It's been so long, I almost didn't recognize you. Who are these people with you?"

"It's my flock. They're like me."

"Oh, well, come in, come in. Make yourselves at home."

So we went in, and I introduced Dr. Martinez to each member of the flock. We all came and sat down in the living room and then she called down Ella.

Ella came down the stairs and into the living room. When she saw me, her face instantly lit up, "Max!" she cried. She ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug. The only one who gave me hugs like this was Angel. "Oh, I can't believe it. It's really you."

"I know," I said, "I missed you too."

She let go and we all got into conversation about what we've been doing and how we've been. And then we got into our mission to save the world… again, and find our missing flock member.

After telling them about how we needed to find Asch, Ella and her mother looked at each other, as if they remembered or knew something. Dr. Martinez got up and went into another room.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's just that, about a month ago, somebody came over here," said Ella.

"What? Did they threaten you? Oh, don't tell me Itex found you and threatened you."

"No, no, nothing like that. Somebody came over here saying they were a friend of yours and figured you might come here."

"Who?"

"He said it would be best if we didn't know his name. But he had red hair. And he had this weird tattoo around his eye." She made a C shape with her fingers over her right eye."

She was describing Asch. Why would he come here? And how could he have possibly known about Ella and Dr. Martinez?

"He also said to give you this," said Dr. Martinez, coming back into the room with an envelope in her hand. "And to keep us safe, we shouldn't open it."

She handed me the envelope. On it was written MAX, just like the note we found in the manor.

I opened it up and pulled out what was inside.

"What does it say?" asked Nudge.

"It doesn't say anything," I said, "It's a pair of maps."

"More maps?" asked Iggy.

There were two maps in the envelope. One was a map of the entire west coast. It had a red line drawn in marker on it from the location of Ella's house to San Francisco. The other was a map of San Francisco. That one had a red line drawn on it that was relative to where the line on the last one ended. It went to a point where there was a drawn circle. Next to it, there was a note that said, "Here I am, Maxie."

It became clear. It was Asch telling me where he was.

"What is it Max?" asked Gazzy.

"We know where to find Asch," I said, holding up the maps, "these are maps leading us to Asch. He's in San Francisco." I looked over to Ella and her mother. "The person who we're looking for is the person who gave you these."

"Why would he give those to us?" asked Dr. Martinez, "Why not just find you directly?"

"He must not know where I am, so he figured that I would come here eventually. But how he knows that I know you is beyond me."

"This just keeps getting more and more confusing," said Nudge.

"I'm sure once we meet Asch, everything will become clear."

"So then, I guess you're gonna go over there right away, huh?" asked Ella, sounding disappointed.

"Yeah, we have to. This is really important."

"Oh, but you'd never make it to San Francisco before dark," said Dr. Martinez, "Why don't you stay here for the night?"

I thought about it for a minute. I didn't want to burden Dr. Martinez even more.

"I'll make you my cookies."

"Okay," I said instantly, "but only because you insist."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jeb Batchelder sat at his desk on his portable computer, going through every tracking system Itex had. Any and all tracking that was on Max and the flock was gone. For the first time, he had absolutely no idea where Max was.

Anne Walker came up behind him. "So, what's the story?"

"There is no story," said Jeb, "anything that was on Max and the others is gone. That geyser fried it all."

"He's proving to be more trouble than I thought."

"What do we do now? No doubt Max knows about us by now. The Erasers we put into the virtual world didn't work and now it's shut down. We can't find her; we got no way of anticipating her next move. And who knows what the Counter-Breed is up to."

"Calm down."

"Tell me what I can do and I will."

Anne walked up to Jeb and closed the computer. "We are going to wait. Wait for Max or those ShawCorp degenerates to make their next move. And then we can strike. So just relax."

Jeb let out a sigh of frustration, "All right."

"Speaking of striking, there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"What?"

"I was thinking about reintroducing Boost into the Erasers…"

"Anne, no. I told you, the side affect is just too great."

"But it increases their performance dramatically. It would be a lot faster to catch them when they have the opportunity. And we still have some left. Not all of it was stolen."

"Look, it makes them half-formed permanently. That's why Ari looked like the way he did, because he took it without my permission. We can't afford for the public to see them like that. It's too big a risk. No more Boost."

"All right, fine."

"So… what do we do while we wait?"

"We make sure all of our plans are proceeding accordingly, it's what we do best Jeb. We just move along."

"I know you're talking about my son, I got the hint months ago. He's gone, I've moved on."

"Just making sure," Anne said as she left the room.


	9. Answers

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Does anyone else feel like a FRIED EGG!? Sorry, that's my boredom with these disclaimers talking, or writing, however you see it.

The next morning, it was time for me and the flock to get going. We were all outside, giving our goodbyes to Ella and Dr. Martinez.

"Well, good luck Max," said Dr. Martinez, "And if you need a home, you and all your friends will always be welcome to stay here."

"Thanks, Dr. Martinez," I said, "we really appreciate that."

"Bye, Max," said Ella, giving me yet another hug, "I'll miss you even more now that you came and have to leave right away."

"I'll miss you a lot too," I said as we let go.

"And don't worry about your friend Fang. You'll find him. I believe it."

"Thanks." I was getting ready to cry. I had to get out of there.

"Well, we better get going," I said.

"And when you come back," said Ella, "we want to hear about all your adventures, everything."

"Count on it. Bye."

"Bye," said everyone else, and we took off for San Francisco. It was really great to see Ella again and I wanted to stay there forever, but of course, I had to have priorities.

The trip to San Francisco wasn't very long. It only took a couple of hours. We found a park in the city and landed there.

I pulled out the map of San Francisco and opened it up. The park we were in wasn't far from the line.

"So, where do we go from here?" asked Angel.

I looked at the map. The spot Asch circled was northwest from the park, about twelve block from where we were.

"It's not too far away," I said, "We just have to walk from here."

"Walk?" asked Nudge, "Why not fly?"

"No, no flying. All cities are no fly zones from now on, unless it's an extreme emergency, and I mean Eraser extreme, got it?"

"Got it," they all said.

So we started walking. If I had known there were so many steep hills, I would have taken Nudge's suggestion and flown. No taxi would fit us and all the trolleys were going out of the way of our destination.

We finally made it to the spot where the circle was on the map. We were in an area full of abandoned buildings and warehouses. The one where the circle was made was a building that was about three stories tall and had only a couple of windows. It looked like it might have been some kind of auditorium. It looked abandoned due to some rust on the gutters and paint that was peeling off.

There was a metal door on one side and we walked up to it. I grabbed the door handle and pulled but it didn't budge. I tried knocking but there was no answer.

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder and I looked down to my left to see Gazzy pointing somewhere. I looked to where he was pointing and saw a camera on the building that just moved to look at us. Maybe the building wasn't as abandoned as I thought.

"How do we get in?" asked Angel.

I shushed her. We were being watched.

"I'm starting to think that this is all one big setup," said Iggy.

"Me too," said Gazzy.

"Well, if it is," I said, "I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle."

I suddenly got an idea. "You guys stay here," I said. I spread my wings and flew up an on to the roof of the building.

The roof was flat and there was a doorway that went down into the building via staircase. The door was open.

"Guys, come up here," I called. They all flew up to the roof with me.

"What's up, Max?" asked Iggy.

"There's a stairway over there. It looks pretty inviting. I don't know whether to feel happy about that or worried."

"Maybe we should go through anyway, and see what happens," said Nudge, "and if anyone tries anything, we'll kick their asses."

"Sounds good to me," said Gazzy.

"All right," I said, "let's do it."

We went through the door and down the stairs. When we came to the bottom, there was another locked door with a red light above it. I knocked on the door and then, to our surprise, a peephole opened in the door. We saw a blue eye looking back at us.

"Who's there?" demanded the voice. It was a girl.

"It's me Max," I said, "I'm looking for Asch; he wanted me to come here." Then after a moment, it hit me who I was talking to. "Wait a minute, Calypso? Is that you?"

"Max?" the girl asked.

The peephole suddenly shut, and after hearing the lock getting undone, the door swung open and I got mauled by a brown-haired girl. I was getting hugs everywhere I went.

"I can't believe it's really you," she said.

"I can't believe it's you," I said. She let go and I could see the others staring at me wondering what was going on.

"Guys, this is Calypso," I told them, "She's with Asch. She's a friend of mine from a long time ago."

"What?" asked Iggy.

"Don't worry; you'll get it in a minute. We're with the good guys."

We walked into the room. The room was well lit. There were several computers along the walls. There was even a huge setup with many screens in the corner of the screen. Someone was sitting at it, facing us.

"She's baaaaaack," he said. It was Sebastian. His long hair was black as night. His big green eyes were warm and welcoming.

He got up and gave me a hug. "Good to see you again, Sebastian," I said.

Then everyone else came into the room: Conrad, Lily, and Asch. Conrad and Lily gave me hugs. Asch stood by smiling.

"We missed you," said Conrad. He had brown hair and blue eyes just like his older sister Calypso, only he cut his hair short.

"It's good to see you again," said Lily.

"Nice to see you too," I said. I looked back to the others and said, "Guys, this is Lily, Conrad, his older sister Calypso, Sebastian, and Asch. They used to be my flock."

"Your flock?" everybody asked in unison.

"You got it," said Asch, "Come on into the other room. Make yourselves at home."

We left the computer room and came into the next room which looked like a living room. There was a couch, a couple of recliners and bean bag chairs, and a rocking chair. There was large, flat-screen TV set up in the room with a DVD player and recorder. There was shelf by it with a huge collection of movies. The room was painted white and it didn't look old. It wasn't peeling or anything. Not like outside.

Everybody grabbed a seat and Asch leaned up against a wall. "You know," he said, "for somebody with wings, you certainly don't know how to use them. I mean, c'mon, going to the front door?"

"We make it a rule not to fly in cities," I said.

"You mean _you_ make it a rule," said Iggy, leaning back in a bean bag chair. If he could see the look I gave him.

"Yeah, well, so what's going on Asch? I've been left out in the dark long enough."

"Before I tell you," he said, "I've got a surprise for you." He walked out of the room. After a moment, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet. And then into the room ran a small dog. But it wasn't just any dog. It was Total.

"Total!" we all cried. We jumped on to my lap and licked my face like it was a melting Popsicle.

"Oh my God, look at you," I said. "It's really you."

"Yeah, it's me," said Total, "Where have you been?"

"We were sleeping," said Angel as she came to scoop up Total from my lap.

"Where?" In cold storage?" Angel sat back down in her spot on the couch and kept hugging Total while he drowned her in licks.

"I found him in L.A.," said Asch, "He was begging a guy for his hot dog."

"Total, you were begging?" asked Angel.

"I was starving," Total said.

"Yeah," said Asch, "he was literally begging. He was saying 'please, sir, can I have it? I'm starving' and the guy ran away freaked out, dropping the hot dog."

"Aww," said Angel.

"It wasn't how I planned, but I got it."

"So I came up to him and told him who I was and got him to come with us," said Asch.

"Well, thank you for finding him and taking care of him," I said.

"You're welcome, now on to business."

"Finally, what's going on, Asch?"

"I guess I'll start from the beginning. You know Itex is a company that makes pretty much everything there is to be made right?"

We all nodded our heads.

"Well, there was another company that did pretty much the same thing. It was called ShawCorp. They were Itex's archrival in business. And then Itex came up with their Re-evolution scheme. ShawCorp found out about it and decided to try and stop them. They somehow managed to steal some of Itex's research and picked a Dr. Ken Albert to lead the project. They succeeded in creating avian-humans as well, and they called them the Counter-Breed. Max, that's us."

"Yeah, it's starting to come back to me now that you mention it," I said, "I remember Dr. Albert. He was a nice guy."

"Yeah, he was," said Asch, "Six hybrids were made, the five of us here and you Max. We were not only given the ability to fly, we have other abilities as well. Just like you guys."

"Yeah, you with your pyrokinesis and hyper-speed, Sebastian with his super intellect, Calypso with her telekinesis, Conrad with his mind-reading ability, and Lily with her ability to cross dimensions."

"Right, and you with your hyper-speed, Nudge with her ability to absorb information, Gazzy with his imitation ability, and Angel with her countless abilities. Iggy was supposed to have night vision, but that didn't work out."

"No kidding," said Iggy.

"And Fang was supposed to have super-strength but that didn't work out either."

"What?!" I yelled. I didn't mean to but it was so shocking to hear. "Fang is supposed to be super-strong?"

"Yeah," said Asch, "but it didn't work out, kinda like how Iggy's night vision didn't work out. But I'm not sure."

"So that's what his ability is supposed to be," said Nudge.

"So anyway," continued Asch, "somehow Itex found out about Counter-Breed. One day, a swarm of Erasers came in and destroyed everything. They killed anyone in their path, including Dr. Albert, but not before we insured that we got away. But they kidnapped you Max."

"Why?" I asked.

"You were better than anything Itex had. Rather than destroy you, they decided to use you to lead Re-evolution. They had a means of erasing your memories, so they did. That was five years ago, when you were only twelve."

"But I remember being at the School all my life, and then at the house in Colorado that Jeb brought us to."

Asch shook his head, "Memory implantations. They inserted false memories into your mind so you could never remember your time at ShawCorp."

"So the first twelve years of my life were a lie?"

"Wait a minute," said Iggy, "we have memories of our time with Max. Did they implant false memories in us too?"

"Yeah, they did. But don't let that affect your bond with each other."

"I wasn't thinking that, this is just amazing."

"So from then on, you have your adventures and you managed to stop Itex about two-and-a-half years ago. But Jeb Batchelder and Anne Walker got away."

Everyone let out a sigh or an 'oh man' of some sort.

"A couple of days after you stopped them, they activated a safety device in you that made you lose all your memories. I can't be 100 sure what it was for, but it was probably for in case they failed. Afterwards, you ran away from your flock in your fright and confusion. The others tried to look for you for a while. Then Fang went off on his own to find you."

"Why would he do that?" I asked.

"You tell me, Max."

I couldn't.

Asch continued, "Well, here's where it gets interesting. Somebody did find you. It was Ari."

"ARI!!!???" we all cried.

"Yeah, he managed to track you down and brought you someplace for his own… untoward purposes. I'll let your imagination figure out what those were."

"Oh my God," I said. I thought I was going to be sick. Being alone with Ari and we weren't kicking each other's asses was just… creepy.

"That's just the icing on the cake. Later, Dr. Roland Ter Borcht shows up and somehow manages to convince Ari to hand you to him."

"Dr. Roland Ter Borcht?" Iggy asked.

"He's the one who started all of this, the one who theorized that he could make people fly. He got thrown into an insane asylum in the Netherlands for his experiments, but he escaped and here to the U.S."

"That's right," I said, "I read up on him at the school when we were staying with Anne. So that guy we saw in Roland City, that was him?"

"That was him?"

"What's Roland City?" asked Nudge.

"It was a virtual town I was kept in… well, now I know why it was called _Roland_ City."

"Yeah," continued Asch, "apparently he's not too creative. He put you in there for safe-keeping while he put in a program that would dismantle the safety device and anything else Itex did or put in, including your voice."

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed that the Voice hadn't spoken to me yet. This was great. The Voice was gone.

"Because it was Ter Borcht, I had to believe he was working with Itex. That's why I came after you like I did. I couldn't afford to have you used to further Itex's plans. But let me tell you, I'm glad I failed. Because it looks like Ter Borcht was working independently, but I can't be completely sure."

"Oh, yeah," I said, suddenly remembering our fight in the manor, "Sorry about that. How are you feeling?"

Asch lifted his black t-shirt to show where I cut him. It was bandaged heavily. "You managed to graze my kidney. Fortunately, we know first-aid pretty well and we can heal a lot faster than most people. I should be fine in a day or so. So, that's the story."

"Wait a minute, what about Fang?"

Asch looked down and shook his head. "Sorry Max. I don't know. That's the one thing I can't answer."

I let out a sigh. "Well, at least now we know what's going on."

"Don't feel sad Max," Lily said. I looked over to her. "We haven't given up looking for Fang. We've got to be able to find him, now that we're all together."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Asch began to walk out of the room, but then he turned around, "Guys, show them their rooms and get them settled in. Then I need you all to come to the roof of the next building. We got to show them the thing."

"What thing?" I asked.

"You'll see when you get there."

Sorry that might have been a little long. Keep on sending those reviews.


	10. Holding Down the Fort

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Less than a week until MR3 comes out. Can you stand it?

* * *

Conrad and Lily showed us to our rooms while Sebastian and Calypso needed to go back to the computers and monitors. 

We went down another flight of stairs. Conrad explained to me that the building had three floors. The top was the living area, where there was the computer room, the living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. The second floor was everybody's bedroom and the guest bedrooms. The first floor was the training facility for everybody, except for Asch. He trained in a warehouse nearby so he wouldn't burn anything down on accident.

"So, how did you afford all of this stuff?" asked Nudge.

"Well, actually," said Conrad, "Itex is paying for it all."

"How is that?" asked Iggy.

"We sort of 'borrowed' one of those limitless cards that Itex has. They never noticed it was gone apparently and what we buy is nothing compared to what they get everyday. So they never really notice the higher bill."

"Whoa, now that's a risk," I said.

"Not really. These cards can't be tracked like normal credit cards, so no one would really know that we have them."

"So how old are you guys?" asked Nudge, "you look pretty close to our ages."

"Well, I'm ten now and Lily is eight. My sister Calypso is fourteen, Sebastian is fifteen, and Asch is eighteen."

We came to the guest bedrooms. "Here you go," said Lily, "one for the boys and one for the girls."

I looked into the rooms. Each one had three beds. Lily brought us girls into our room while Conrad showed the boys theirs.

The beds were really nice, and they looked really comfortable. I'd have preferred them to sleeping in a tree anyway. The room was nice light peach.

"And there's two bathrooms at the end of the hall," said Lily.

"Cool," said Nudge.

"You guys don't have any bags or anything, do you?"

"Nothing but the clothes on our backs," I said.

"All right, we'll have to go shopping for some clothes for you later."

"Yay, more shopping!" cried Nudge.

"Well, that's about it. You better get going. Asch can be a little impatient sometimes."

We all left the rooms and started heading upstairs. I bent down and whispered to Angel, "Have you been reading their minds just to make sure everything's legit? Not that I don't trust them, but I just want to be sure."

"I've been trying Max, but when I do, all I get is blank. I don't understand it."

"That's because ShawCorp knew about you, Angel," said Conrad from in front of us. We were both startled.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean when ShawCorp dug up the information on you, they found the specifics on you Angel. So the scientists who made us created what you could call 'mental blocks' so that way you couldn't read or control our minds."

"Aww, man," said Angel.

We got to the computer room and Sebastian stood up. "I'm going with you to see Asch. The others will stay here and hold down the fort."

"Great, let's go," I said.

Sebastian and the rest of us came to the roof of the building. I looked around to try to find Asch.

"He's over there," said Sebastian, pointing to the building across from ours. It was about ten stories tall. We all flew up to the building and found Asch.

He was looking through one of those giant binoculars that you could find in really scenic places.

He turned around to look at us and motioned for us to come over here. "Where did you get this thing?" I asked.

"We stole it from Golden Gate," he said, "We took out the blockers so that we don't have to pay a cent. Now take a look at that."

I went over to the binoculars and looked through them. I saw a huge building that must have been miles away. But then I saw what Asch was referring to. On the building there was a big sign that said "Itex".

As I looked through, Asch continued talking, "We got a problem. A big problem. That building was finished just about a month ago. Ever since, there have been these suspicious-looking trucks moving in and out of the place. I don't know what's in them, but we've seen workers throwing bags into the river that look like body bags."

I looked away from the binoculars and asked, "So what are they doing?" Nudge went to look through the binoculars.

"I don't know. We tried getting in but the security is tight. But our theory is that the building is for processing rejects. Taking the good parts out and dumping the bad. Sometimes the entire body is bad. I've seen them before."

"So what do we do?" I asked as Gazzy took his turn to look through the binoculars.

"We're not sure," said Sebastian, "maybe it's the paranoia talking, but that place got built a little too close to us for our comfort. So, we're keeping a close eye on them."

"So you think they might know about where you are?"

"You got it," said Asch.

"But wouldn't they have tried something by now if they knew where you were?"

"Maybe, but this is Itex we're talking about. They have this amazing amount of patience, like a frog waiting for flies."

"He's got a good point there, Max," said Iggy.

Asch was right. Itex was like an eye that was always watching us. They just waited and waited until it was the perfect time to strike.

Angel was looking through the binoculars now. She was standing on her tip-toes in order to do so. "Are you picking up anything Angel?" I asked.

"They're too far away," she said, "I can't read their thoughts."

"Damn," said Sebastian, "not even Angel can pick up their thoughts. If there was some way we could get into that building…"

Suddenly there was a loud smashing sound from below. We all looked to see a small fire from a Molotov cocktail on the ground near the Counter-Breed building. There were some voices yelling and a couple of people running.

"Damn it, not again," said Sebastian as he jumped from the roof of the building back to the Counter-Breed home.

"Those bastards never learn," said Asch as he was about to jump.

"Asch!" I shouted, "What's going on?"

"We're caught in the middle of a gang war," he said, "Two groups called the Fire Rats and the Tiger Sharks."

He jumped and flew back to the building and then we all followed. "So what do we do?" I asked.

"What else? We're gonna chase 'em off."

We ran back inside. "So how exactly do we chase them off?"

Everyone was running around. "Easy, we go outside and we make sure they don't try to get in here or destroy the place."

"What? They know about you?" asked Iggy.

"No, they don't know _about_ us. They just know that we're here and they're pissed that we're on what they believe is their turf."

Sebastian came out of the other room with a box about the size of a large tool box. He placed it on a desk and opened up it up. Inside were several switchblades and a couple of guns. He pulled out the blades and handed one to Asch and Calypso. He slipped one in his pocket and then pulled a key out of the box. He walked over to a small locker and unlocked it. He pulled out what looked like a samurai sword and sheath with a shoulder strap attached.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, running past me.

Asch went to the box and pulled out one of the handguns. He cocked it and handed it to Conrad. "Conrad," he said, "You and Lily stay here. Angel, Gazzy, you stat here too. Max, Iggy, Nudge, we'll need your help. You up for it? Six on the outside would be a lot better than three."

"Of course," I said.

"I'm up for some action," said Iggy.

"Yeah, let's do it," said Nudge.

Asch pulled out three switchblades from the box and handed them to us. "You might need them," he said, "Put them in your pockets and don't take them out unless a gang member does it to you."

We ran down the stairs and out the door that we tried to get into earlier. Just then two guys were running passed with another Molotov ready to be lit.

"Spread around the building," ordered Asch, "don't be afraid to chase anybody but don't leave the area. Watch out for gang-ups. And for God's sake, be careful."

He then ran after the two people with the Molotov cocktail. The rest of us separated around the building. I came across three guys who had red jackets on.

"I assume you're with the Fire Rats," I said.

"Yeah," said one of them, "and if you don't get out of our way, you'll be getting up close and personal with the pavement."

"Not gonna happen," I said.

The guys rushed me but they were no problem. I landed a punch in one's stomach and then a kick into one of the others. The other took a swing but I ducked and landed a hook right on his chin, knocking him to the ground. The first one who I punched tried to grab me but I slipped away and hooked my leg around his and pushed him, knocking him to the ground. I landed another kick square in the jaw of the second one and he staggered against the building.

But then three more came and the three I was fighting were up and ready for more. "Hey, guys," said one of them, "this one's a little hot-headed. I think we need to cool her down."

Six on one were not good odds for me in a gang mentality environment.

"Max, I'll help," cried Sebastian as he ran down. He unsheathed his sword as he came down.

"Oh, shit," said one of the gang members, "she must with those strays."

"And here comes that one with the sword. Get the hell out," said another. They all ran away as Sebastian came to my side.

"You're good to have around," I said, "Did they call you 'strays'?"

"That's a little nickname they came up for us," said Sebastian, "C'mon, there's still more around."

Sebastian ran in the direction the Fire Rat members ran while I kept going in mine.

I ran around a corner of the building to see another Molotov explode near me. I barely dodged the flames and then I saw two guys in black leather jackets getting ready to light another one. "Take this you frickin' strays," said one of them.

"Hey," I shouted to them.

They looked up to me. "Well, lookee here," said one of them, "looks like the strays got a new member."

"A nice lookin' new member," said the other.

"Oh, please, not a chance," I said.

The two goons lit the Molotov and tossed it at me. But in mid-flight, it exploded, missing me.

"Dammit," said the one who threw it. They started to charge me. But I quickly took them down. They began running away and I chased after them.

All around me I heard the sounds of people yelling, fighting, or smashing things. For about another hour this went on. Fighting and chasing away gang members. It was a couple steps down from fighting Erasers, but it wasn't exactly fun either.

We all met at the front door where we came out. Nobody seemed hurt.

"Yikes," said Nudge, "these guys are really stubborn. I think I chased the same group of guys at least three times."

"Yeah, they're pretty bad," said Sebastian, "but eventually they get the point. They know we're no pushovers."

"How often you got to deal with these guys?" asked Iggy.

"Not too often," said Calypso, "only about once every couple of weeks. It depends on how much they're feeling like a fight."

"Yeah, but it was easier now that we've got some new additions," said Asch.

"That's for sure," said Sebastian.

"Hey, no problem," I said, "I'm glad we could help. By the way, Sebastian, where'd you get that sword?"

"Oh, I found it at a pawn shop. I got a good deal for it. And it scares away every gang member who sees it."

"Well, now that this ordeal is over with," said Asch, "how about we clean up a little bit, and I'll make us some lunch."

* * *

Please keep reviewing. 


	11. Cooking, Computers, and Secrets

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. And for you Fang lovers out there, chill out. He is coming.

* * *

Asch was in the kitchen pulling a pan out when Iggy and Nudge came in. "So what's for lunch?" asked Iggy. 

"Steak sandwiches," answered Asch.

"Okay, point me in the right direction. I can handle steak sandwiches."

"Excuse me?"

"I can cook steak sandwiches."

"You can cook?"

"Why is everybody always surprised by that?"

"Well, even if you can, which I won't doubt, around here, I do the cookin'."

"But how can you cook steak?" asked Nudge, "You don't even have a stove or an oven in your kitchen."

Asch let out a small laugh. "Nudge, go to that basket over there and pull out the bulky rolls. Then you can watch and learn. No offense Iggy, but trust me, you'll feel this."

Asch began chopping pieces of steak while Nudge searched through the breadbasket for the bulky rolls. When she found them she came back to Asch who had the steak in the pan.

"Now check out something Emeril Lagasse dreams he could do."

Asch held the pan outward with one hand and extended his other arm. He took his index finger and pointed it up from beneath the pan. He then brought out a stream of fire and it roared as it billowed from his finger.

Nudge watched wide-eyed while Iggy staggered back a bit from the heat. They heard Asch quietly counting backward.

"Three…two…one…" the stream of fire stopped. "Now take a look," said Asch.

Asch held out the pan for Nudge to see. She looked into it. The steak slices were cooked perfectly, the juices still sizzling.

"Wow," said Nudge, "that is so cool. Iggy, you've got major competition."

"Yeah," said Iggy, "we'll see when I get a chance to cook."

"Now," said Asch, "do you want your roll plain or toasted?"

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After lunch, I was talking to Calypso and Sebastian. They were at the huge computer terminal.

"So, what is this thing for?" I asked.

"Well," said Sebastian, "this thing here is for the security system and surveillance. The other things are what we use for research or to play games or what not."

"Mostly he just uses it to play the games," said Calypso.

"So what do you research?" asked Gazzy, coming up from behind me.

"Itex mostly," said Calypso, "but we also kept tabs on you guys, trying to keep track of you so we could find you."

"But you haven't been able to find Fang?" I asked.

"For a while, we did have a track on him," said Sebastian, "but then he just fell out of our radar, like he disappeared."

I guess I had a look of disappointment on my face because then he said, "But…but don't feel bad. I mean, he obviously didn't disappear. I'm sure we'll find him."

"Man, so not even your computer can find him," I asked, starting to feel depressed.

"C'mon, Max," said Gazzy, "don't get all droopy on us. Like Sebastian said, we'll find him. We'll all be together again soon, and then it will be just like before."

I thought I saw Sebastian and Calypso exchange a look, but I couldn't be sure.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked, "I mean, besides look for Fang."

"Well," said Calypso, "We need to find out what's in that new Itex building you saw. We found a way to get in. We just haven't gotten a window of opportunity to use it yet. But now that you're here, we might be able to pull it off now that we have more people."

"We need to be careful," said Sebastian, "because if somebody found us, we wouldn't be too far away to strike. We have plans, but we'll talk about them tomorrow. You've had a rough day. Why don't you just sit back and relax for a change? Watch a couple of movies in the other room if you like."

I turned and looked around. "Wait a minute," I said, "where's Angel?"

"Oh, she went with Lily to her room," said Calypso, "They're probably playing a game or something."

"It's so nice that Angel finally has someone close to her age to talk to."

"And vice versa. As smart as Lily is, she's still a child at heart and all this can be pretty overwhelming at times."

"I know what you mean. I always feel bad that Angel has to go through all of this, especially since Itex seems to have some major interest in her."

"Yeah," said Sebastian, "we were never really able to figure out what was going on there. Our best theory is that she was supposed to be a replacement for you, but then again, why would they create a second Max?"

"Oh, yeah, Max II. I remember her. I'd prefer not to."

"I don't blame ya. Tomorrow we'll talk about what we're gonna do about Itex. We got nothing to do today, so just relax."

So I did. It was an incredibly huge change to the usual running, or flying, around that we had to do. We could all just sit back and not have to worry about anything. And we were with friends. But still, I couldn't help be a little on edge. It was just my nature.

I decided to take Sebastian's advice and watch a couple of movies on their television. They only had basic cable but it was a lot more channels than we got.

For the whole day, it was just us relaxing, talking with each other, enjoying each other's company. It was almost perfect. Almost.

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Asch's alarm went off and he quickly shut it off before it could wake anybody else up. It was two in the morning. He quickly got out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans, slip-ons, and a t-shirt.

Quietly, he walked through the hall and up the stairs in the darkness, using a small flame from his finger as a guide light. He went through the living room and into the computer room. He opened the door leading to the roof and left it open so it would not lock him out as he went up the stairs.

Asch came up to the roof and leaned on the guardrail on the edge and waited. After a couple of minutes, Ari flew down and landed beside him.

"You're alive," said Ari, "Is that good news or bad news?"

"She's down in the guestroom," said Asch, "getting the most comfortable sleep she's probably ever had."

"So you didn't have to kill her."

"No, but I did try."

"What?" Ari asked, a little bit of anger in his voice.

"I fought her in the basement of the manor," Asch then started to laugh, "You never told me how resourceful she's gotten. She took a sharpened lead pipe and went Mark McGuire on my hip." He lifted his shirt to show Ari his bandaged hip.

"And this is funny?" Ari asked after looking at the wound.

"I'm just glad I lost the fight, because Max wasn't being used by Itex."

"I told you that you could trust Doc."

"You were right, and I apologize for not having more faith in you."

"Don't worry about it. If I was in your position, I probably wouldn't have trusted him either. So, what happens now?"

"We're planning on breaking in to that new Itex building over there tomorrow," said Asch, pointing to it.

Ari looked over to it, his enhanced abilities allowing him to see the lit sign on the building without needing binoculars or to squint. After a moment, he said, "That name still makes my skin crawl just a little bit, knowing what they're trying to do. They are just evil. Anything about that place is evil."

"Amen."

"How do you plan to get in there?"

"We've got a plan. It'll work better now that we have Max and the others. They've been inside several Itex buildings. They'll know what to look out for. Of course, you could help too if you join us."

"You know I can't do that Asch."

"Oh, c'mon. Just come in here and explain everything to her. She wouldn't feel any differently about you, neither would anyone else."

"Asch, I can't let her see me."

"I hope you understand how much it hurts me to lie to my best friend. But I do it for you, because I promised you. But you really should come in and tell her. And do you know what she would tell you? She would say that you're still Fang no matter what."

Ari grabbed Asch by the neck. "Don't call me that!" he yelled, "I'm not Fang, not anymore!" He suddenly realized what he was doing and let go.

"Sorry," he said, "It's the Boost, it raises my aggression."

"It's all right," said Asch, rubbing his neck, "but you need to talk to her. I know you took it in order to kill Ari so you could save Max. I understand that, she will too."

"I'll talk to her when I'm ready. Right now, I'm just glad to know that she's all right. You take good care of her."

"You got it. I'll try to look for a counter medicine for Boost too."

"I appreciate that. Thanks for helping Max. I'll see you later." With that Ari unfurled his wings and took off into the night.

Asch watched him fly away. "Good luck… Fang," he said.

* * *

R&R C'mon, don't be shy. 


	12. Morning Shenanigans

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Has anyone considered that Itex might own this website?

* * *

I woke up from probably the best sleep I had ever had to a soft sound. I slowly got up, not really wanting to because the bed was so comfortable, but I my curiosity got the best of me. 

I walked through the room in my new white nightgown. Yesterday, the others and I went shopping for new clothes. We all got a week's worth of clothes.

Angel and Nudge were still out like lights. They had a bit of a blowout when it came to the shopping.

I came into the hallway and the sound became louder. I couldn't really make it out but it sounded like a piano.

I walked down the hallway and I could tell I was getting closer to where the sound was coming from. I came across Asch's room and that was where the sound was loudest. His door was open a crack so I pushed it open. I found him sitting at a keyboard playing a song.

I walked up from behind him and listened. I had never really heard someone play a piano, or a keyboard for that matter. The song he was playing was really nice.

When he finished he turned around and jumped a little from seeing me. "Whoa," he said, "didn't realize I had an audience."

"Sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to startle you. I just heard it and I wanted to know what it was."

"That's all right."

"What was that song anyway?"

"It's called 'Sanctuary'. Well, actually, the original Japanese version is called 'Passion' but I like this version."

"Oh. Where'd you learn to play?"

"Geez, Maxie, are you always full of questions in the morning? I learned from a little instruction video that came with the keyboard. It was kind of a little thing I always wanted to do."

I smiled. I never really would have figured Asch as a piano-playing type. But then again, if you looked at us, you wouldn't know we have wings until we whip them out.

"Why don't you go back to bed? It's still a little early."

"Nah, now that I'm awake, I'll never be able to go back to sleep, despite that amazing bed."

"You like it, huh?"

I nodded my head yes.

"Well, since you're awake, you can help me get breakfast ready."

"Do you really want me to poison those children?" I asked jokingly.

"Oh, boy. Well, maybe you could wake Iggy. He's challenged me to a cooking competition anyway."

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Jeb sat in the taxi as it tried to get through the morning traffic. He opened up his briefcase and shuffled through some papers. He found an evaluation sheet he would need for the building he was going to. He placed it on top of the pile and then closed the briefcase again.

He hated being up so early, but this couldn't wait, according to Anne Walker anyway. He had to down three cups of coffee to keep him awake.

The taxi came to a stop. "All right," said the cabbie, "Here we are, that'll be $22.50."

Jeb paid the man and got out of the cab. "Thank you," the cabbie said, "and welcome to San Francisco."

The taxi sped off into the traffic and Jeb turned around to look at the new building. Anne had sent him here to review and evaluate the performance of the building. Basically, it was to make sure it wasn't a waste of money.

Jeb walked around to the back. In the distance he could see a group of assorted abandoned buildings. He wasn't particularly fond of the location but it was the best spot for not being obvious with its activities.

He came to the back door and pressed a button that was near a speaker. "Hello, this is Jeb Batchelder. I'm here to see how things are going."

"Mr. Batchelder?" asked a voice from the speaker, "We weren't expecting you for another couple of hours."

"I got an earlier flight."

"Hold on, I'll let you in a minute."

After a moment, the door opened and a security guard was there to greet Jeb. "Welcome Mr. Batchelder," he said, "welcome to the last stop before Hell."


	13. Planning to Strike

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here! Uhh…I mean, the new Max Ride book's here! The new Max Ride book's here!

* * *

Breakfast almost scared me. Asch and Iggy were trying to outdo each other in the kitchen, trying to see who could make pancakes better.

And in all honesty, I had to call it a draw. Both of their pancakes were really good. I couldn't tell which was better.

After the having the competitive breakfast, showering, and getting dressed, it was time to unveil the plans for getting into the new Itex building.

Asch had a diagram of the building that he laid out on a table in the living room. "All right," he said, "Now this is just a basic diagram of the outside. We did some scouting of the area earlier. On the weekends the security isn't as tight. So we're gonna go in tonight, at eight o'clock."

"Tonight?" I asked.

"We've been planning this for awhile. Sorry to drop it on you."

"It's all right. If it involves getting the scoop on Itex, then I'm up for it."

"Yeah," said Nudge, "if it we can mess 'em up, we'll do it."

"Good," said Sebastian, "cause we could actually use your help. You've been in several Itex buildings, so we were hoping you could give us pointers."

"Oh yeah," I said, "We could tell you some things. First of all, watch out for Erasers. Second of all, _watch out for Erasers_."

"Okay, gotcha."

"All I could really say is expect the unexpected. Itex buildings can have traps anywhere. And they are all about security. I don't know if there is an inch of an Itex building that isn't watched. I don't think a fly could get in without being noticed."

"I see," said Asch, "so if this really is a reject building, then security would be all over the place."

"Most likely."

"All right, well, here's what we have planned," Asch said, directing our attention to the diagram, "We would have Lily open a rift behind this pile of crates here. We have a radio system so we can stay in contact at all times. Sebastian would stay here. He could hack into the security system no problem, as long as we let him know what they've got. Calypso could break open the door without setting off the alarm and Conrad could read minds through the wall to let me of know anyone coming that Sebastian can't see. Then I would go in and… then we'd see."

"Sounds like you've got it all worked out," said Iggy.

"Yeah," said Sebastian, "but if you guys help us, things could go a lot smoother."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Instead of just Asch going into the building, it could be you and Asch, Max. You could help him out and you'd cover a lot more ground."

"I guess that makes sense. All right."

"Then there's Gazzy, he'd be good in case of an emergency, not to make you sound like an object Gaz."

"How could I help?" asked Gazzy.

"What does it take for you to be able to mimic a voice?"

"Not much. I just need to hear them say a sentence and I've got it in my head. I can even throw the voice."

"So if you heard security guards talk…"

"Oh, I getcha. If we're about to be caught, I can mimic a guard and lure them away from us."

"Bingo."

"What about me?" asked Nudge, "What can I do?"

"Hmm," said Asch, thinking, "well, rather than me attempting to describe the security system to Sebastian, you could just touch it and tell him all about it."

"Yeah, all right. I'll do it. This is so cool, getting to sneak into Itex and mess with them."

"We're not trying to mess with them Nudge," said Sebastian, "We just want to get into the building and see what's in it. Who knows? Maybe we'll find more information on how they're restarting Re-evolution."

"What about me?" asked Angel, "don't leave me out."

"Of course we wouldn't leave you out Angel," said Calypso, "You could help Conrad scan for voices. And if a guard does see us, you could take control of his mind before he can tell his buddies. How does that sound?"

"That sounds cool."

"Hey, have we all forgotten about the blind kid here?" asked Iggy.

"Oh yes," said Asch, "what _shall_ we do with the blind kid?"

"Hey, Iggy," said Sebastian, "did you know that you can make C4 using cement mixer, gasoline, and cat litter?"

"Seriously?"

"I have some bombs in the basement and the ingredients are in a closet on the first floor. And I've got a model that you could use. You think you can handle it?"

"Ohhhhhhhh yeaaaahhhh."

Sebastian had just hit Iggy's weak spot. Iggy's the only one I know who could obsess about bombs like he could. And manage to hide them on his person without anybody knowing. The only other one I knew was Gazzy.

"Okay, so we've all got jobs," said Asch, "this is great. Everybody will be able to help."

"So what do we do between now and eight o'clock?" I asked.

"We've actually got something to do at five tonight. Then we'll eat dinner and we'll get ready."

"What are you doing at five?"

"We're going to church. You can come if you like, but if you don't, that's okay too."

"You guys go to church?"

"Yeah. You don't?"

"We never really had the time to go with all of our travels. Except once when we were in New York, but it wasn't for a mass. We just…were there."

"Do you wanna come?"

I wasn't so sure if I wanted to try being in tune with God again. I didn't think He was going to be of any help to me. Although, I was fighting people who were trying to be Him. I might have had His wrath on my side.

"I don't think I wanna go," I said, "If you guys wanna go, it's all right with me," I said to the flock.

"Well, you've got the rest of the day," said Asch, "Think about it."

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I did think about it. And in the end, I still didn't go.

Everyone else went but me. I felt kind of bad for not going but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So I stayed at the house while the others left.

I watched TV for a little while. But then I got bored with it. When you have had as many crazy adventures as I've had, what you find on TV just pales in comparison.

I decided to go exploring around the house a little bit. I had already seen the third floor, but I never really saw the rest of the place.

I went down to the second floor and looked through the rooms. I didn't go through anybody's stuff, I just looked. There were some interesting things that the group had. Sebastian had a couple more swords hanging on the walls. Calypso had a poster of almost every single singer that was around today. Conrad had a couple of movie posters, though the movies that they were for were disturbed me a bit for someone who was only ten years old.

Lily's room I realized I had already seen. It was the room she had taken me in before. The baby blue one with all of her drawings.

Then I looked into Asch's room. I knew I had already been in it by I was just curious. Inside was the keyboard. I looked over to one of his drawers and something caught my eye.

There were two framed pictures on it. One was of all of us. All of us meaning me and the Counter-Breed flock. We were all in the picture, smiling at it. Dr. Albert was even in the picture.

The other picture was of me and Asch. We were standing next to each other with our arms on each other buddy-buddy style. I suddenly remembered when this picture was taken. It was just a few days before my memory was wiped, before I was kidnapped by Itex. I wondered how Asch got those pictures.

I heard the others coming into the house. I quickly left Asch's room and came up the stairs to greet them.

"Hey, guys," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic, "How was it?"

"It was nice Max," said Angel, "You should have gone."

"I don't know," said Iggy, "I don't think you'd have liked it." I could tell he was just trying to make me feel better for not going. I guess it helped a little.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I just wouldn't have felt comfortable."

"It's okay Max," said Asch.

"Yeah," said Lily, "not everyone feels the same way about God, Max. It's fine."

That definitely made me feel better, especially coming from Lily. I couldn't help but smile.

"Now there we go," said Asch. "Now, I've got two good chickens in the refrigerator and some mashed potatoes and stuffing." He started heading into the kitchen.

"I'm going in there with you to make sure you don't mess up," said Iggy, going into the kitchen as well.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," said Nudge, "I have to watch this." She followed them into the kitchen.

For the next two hours, Asch and Iggy were arguing over how to cook whatever needed to be cooked, but in a friendly way. Not like they were going at it with two giant knives over whether Asch should use his power to cook the chicken for five minutes or ten. When it was time to eat, the food was excellent again.

And I guess that saying about time flying when you're having fun is right, because before we knew it, it was eight o'clock.

Time to rock n' roll.


	14. Breaking In

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. That's a silly thing in reverse.

* * *

Asch looked through the binoculars on the building next door. I was with him. He looked away from the binoculars and toward me. "The last of the day shift's leaving," he said, "All that's there is the night crew now."

"So we're good to go?" I asked.

"We're good to go."

"Let's do it."

We both glided down to the Counter-Breed building and went into the computer room. Everyone was in there waiting.

"Okay," said Asch, "this is it. Everyone have their headsets?"

Everybody except Lily and Iggy nodded their head yes. Sebastian and they would be staying here.

The headsets were small little radios that you just had to stick in your ear. That was what Asch was doing whenever he called out Lily when I saw him. He was calling her using the radio. You had to press a button to talk though. That was their only disadvantage. You'd think with these limitless cards we could buy something with quality.

"All right," said Asch, "Lily, take us down there."

"Wait," I said, "There's something we gotta do first." I called my flock to gather around and put my hand in. Everyone got the idea and started stacking their hands. It felt like forever since we did this.

"What are you doing?" asked Sebastian.

"We call it the hand-stacking thing. We always do it before we do something like this. It's kind of a good luck thing. C'mon, get in on it."

The others came and got their hands in. It felt a little awkward that there were nearly twice as many hands as there usually was. But it felt even worse that there was a set of hands missing.

When we were done and separated, Asch said, "Okay, Lily. Do your stuff."

Lily nodded her head and then held out her hand. In an open space in the room, a rift opened up.

"Whoa!" cried Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge.

Asch walked up to and then held his arm out, "Ladies first," he said.

"Wow, a gentleman," I said, "Fang could learn from you."

Asch laughed a bit, but it seemed like an awkward laugh, like he suddenly felt uncomfortable. I decided not to say anything about it. There was no time for small talk.

I walked through the rift and came out on the outside, a few feet away from a pile of crates. I was followed by Calypso, Nudge, Angel, Conrad, Gazzy, and then Asch. The rift closed behind him.

"That was cool," said Nudge.

Asch turned her around and made the shush sign with his finger. Nudge immediately got the point and nodded her head, making the same sign.

Asch tip-toed past us and peaked around the crates to look at the door we needed to go through. I looked up from another myself to see two guards at the door, talking to each other.

"We're in luck," whispered Asch, "They're a couple of chatterboxes. Gazzy, can you hear them?"

"Yeah, I can hear them. I can get their voices down."

The radio crackled in our ears. "Ca…uys hear…"

Asch put his finger to his ear and said, "Say again Sebastian."

"Can you guys hear me?" asked Sebastian, clear as a bell.

We all nodded our heads and Asch said, "Yeah, we can hear you perfectly."

"All right, everybody listen up, when I'm talking to you, I'll only be talking to you, got it? I can only keep up one transmission connection at a time without being detected. But you can talk to each other."

"Okay, we gotcha," I said.

"All right, let me know when Nudge gets the information."

I looked back over the crates. But then I noticed something that might pose a problem. "Uh-oh," I said, "We got a problem." I got down and faced everyone. "There's a camera right next to the door."

"Oh, that's no problem," said Calypso, "I can make that camera turn the other way. Our only real problem is those guards."

"So how do we get them away?" I asked.

Everyone seemed to be thinking for a minute and then it seemed to dawn on everyone at almost the same time. We slowly turned our heads to face Angel.

"What?" she asked. She must have read our minds because then she said, "Oh, I get it. All right."

She curled her head around the side of the crates while the others and I peaked above the crates. We watched the guards. One of them started to hold their head for a minute and then he said, "Hey, what was that noise?"

"What noise?" the other asked, "I didn't hear anything."

"No, I know I heard something," said the first one, and he walked off to another side of the building, the other one following.

"Way to go Angel," said Calypso.

"No problem," said Angel, with that Angel smile of hers."

"Okay, now its time for me to work my magic."

Calypso looked over the crates and concentrated on the camera. I watched her narrow her eyes. Then I looked over to the camera and I watched it turn all the way to the left.

"Okay, Nudge," said Asch, "go up to the camera and touch it. Then talk to Sebastian and give him the information on it. We'll cover you."

Nudge quickly ran over to the door and then touched the camera. She let go and then put her finger to her ear. I barely heard her talking to Sebastian about what type of security it was linked up to and who made it and things like that.

She ran back over and said, "Sebastian can get in, it'll take him a few minutes."

"All right," said Asch, "When he gives us the O.K, you guys stay here and keep watch as Max and I go in. Conrad, Angel, keep your minds open to anybody who might be coming our or your way. And if you get spotted, get out. Don't call Sebastian to have Lily open a rift, just get out."

The members of my flock looked to me questioningly; as if they weren't sure they wanted to go through with that. But it was the smart thing to do, so I nodded my head to them.

After a few minutes, Sebastian crackled in, "All right, I'm in. I just unlocked the door. Any other door that you need me to unlock I can. I took control of the security cameras too so any guards monitoring them will think they're looking at empty halls."

"All right, cool," said Asch, "You ready Max?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," I said.

We both headed over to the door and Asch opened it. I went in first. We were in a hallway that was completely white; white ceiling, white walls, and white tile floors. Why was every Itex building white on the inside?

We came across a large glass window that looked into another room. There were several people in it. Asch and I quickly ducked down so they wouldn't see us. We waddled past them until we got away from the glass.

We got back up and came to a door with a security lock on it. Next to the door was a sign that said LOADING BAY. "Sebastian," said Asch.

"Yeah, I see you," said Sebastian, "Hold on a second."

There were some beeps from the lock and then I heard the snap of the lock coming undone. Asch looked over to me and smiled, "He's quite the genius," he said.

Asch opened the door and we walked in. There was a large room that was an ugly brown color. The room was as tall as the building. Inside there were two forklifts and a couple of crates scattered about. There were two large sliding doors on the other side that were closed. Those must have been where the trucks and forklifts went in and out.

"One of the crates has been left open," Asch pointed out. "Let's check it out."

We walked over to the crate and looked into it. Inside there were large, black, leather bags. They looked frighteningly like body bags. And there was a bad smell coming from them. Asch reached in and found that it was heavy. We both pulled it out and it looked even more like a body bag. I was seriously hoping we were going to find rotted fish in the bag.

Asch grabbed the zipper and opened it up. And lo and behold, it was a dead body. But not just any body, it was a body of an avian-human recombinant. It was a girl and she only looked about six or seven. She was obviously a failure or she wouldn't be here.

The sight almost made me want to be sick. How anyone could possibly do this was beyond me. It was just evil and cruel.

"So, I was right," said Asch, "This is a reject house. Dammit." He was angry but he kept it in pretty well. We couldn't afford to have a fit of rage and have a bunch of guards come in and see what was going on.

We zipped the body back up and put her back in the crate. It sickened me to have to do that but we couldn't leave any evidence that we had been there. Asch was sickened too, I could tell, he was just better than me at not showing it. It almost reminded me of Fang.

"Is there a point to looking in the rest of the crates?" I asked.

"If you don't want to," said Asch, "then why don't you head upstairs and try to look for what else they might have, like information on how they're restarting Re-evolution. I'll keep going through here and see what else they might have been transporting. Maybe I'll find something we could use."

It was harder than I thought to be the one taking the orders rather than the one giving them. I was used to leading my flock but Asch was used to leading his, and I would never admit it to anyone in a million years, but he seemed better at it. He had his in a permanent home and mine kept jumping from place to place. His was well-organized and mine was always scattered and making it up as we went along. I needed to take the leadership class that Asch took and pass with flying colors.

"I think I'll take the second choice," I said.

Asch then spoke into his headset, "Sebastian, we're gonna separate for awhile. Max is gonna go upstairs and I'm staying here in the loading bay."

"All right," said Sebastian.

"Keep an eye on her," said Asch.

"No problem."

I went to the door and opened it, making sure there was nobody coming. The coast was clear and I started walking down the hall, carefully.

Fortunately, I didn't run into anybody and I found a staircase. I walked up it and came to the top. There was another long, white hallway.

It was empty too. There were no whitecoats or security guards. None that were visible anyway.

I walked down it and found a room that was labeled RECORDS ROOM 1. There was a security lock on it just like at the loading bay.

I called to Sebastian but he was two steps ahead of me. I already heard the beeping of the lock and then the click of it being undone.

I walked into the room. There were a bunch of puke green file cabinets in the room. They weren't labeled in any way so I just started searching in one at random.

There wasn't anything in there that I recognized. There a bunch of files on employees and stuff that I didn't understand. I went through some more cabinets, but it was more of the same.

I was about to walk out the door when I heard voices. I stayed by the doors and stood completely still. If they came in here I was busted. But then again, I could tear through them like tissue. Unless it was Erasers, then I would tear through them like a wool blanket. Somewhat harder, but can still be done.

The voices faded away. I didn't hear anything. I opened the door and continued down the hall. I kept walking down the hall until I found another room marked RECORDS ROOM 2. Sebastian must have been keeping a close eye on me because the door unlocked and I went in.

There were more puke green cabinets. But this time they bore fruit. Inside the first cabinet, I found information on Re-evolution and where they've been operating from. There were a bunch of places where this scheme was being carried out. I just grabbed what looked _really _important.

There was also information on the rejects that were being brought in and out of the building, but I didn't want to look at that. I would have been sick to know how many they mercilessly slaughtered.

I couldn't believe that a place like this would have this kind of information. I wondered if Asch had found anything good yet.

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Asch continued to search through the crates, only to find more body bags. All the crates had bodies in them.

The only ones he didn't check were a couple in the corner of the room. He walked up to them but then he noticed that these had some sort of label on them. The label was white with a drawing of something that looked like a black bottle.

He opened up one of them and looked inside. This crate didn't have any bodies inside it. Instead there were bottles. Asch picked up one of them and looked at it. The bottle had a small label on it. On it there was some small writing but in big letters was written BOOST.

Asch was elated. They were dumping Boost. Maybe they were dumping an antidote, if there was such a thing. Immediately, he started searching the other crates saying to himself, "Antidote, antidote, antidote." He couldn't find any such thing.

He cursed himself for not being able to find it. Maybe he could give it to Sebastian and he could analyze it and come up with an antidote. He would keep it between them though. He didn't want to break his promise to Fang and let Max find out.

Asch left the loading bay. There was nothing left for him here.

Max was on the second floor so he would sneak to the third floor. He found a set of stairs and managed to get there without being seen.

The third floor hallway was just like the first floor. He was walking through it when he spotted something that really surprised him. Through a window in a door, he saw Jeb Batchelder, in the flesh. Jeb was turned at his side, talking to a bunch of people in the room.

Asch quickly got away from the door. What was Jeb doing here? If he saw Max in the building, then San Francisco would be crawling with Erasers looking for her.

"Hey, Sebastian," Asch said into the headset.

"What's up?" Sebastian said.

"We've got a serious problem. Guess who I just saw in the building?"

"Genghis Kahn?" said Iggy in the background.

"No, the nerdy version of him. Jeb Batchelder! I just saw him with my own two eyes."

"What?!" cried Sebastian.

"Jeb Batchelder is HERE."

"Get the hell out of there."

"Hey, you!" yelled a voice from Asch's right.

Asch looked over to see a security guard looking right at him. He'd been spotted.

"Shit, I've been seen," said Asch, "Tell Max and the others to get out. I'm on my own." He ripped off his headset and broke it in his hand so no one would know who he was talking to. He took off sprinting.

The guard ran after him, calling for backup.

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I was still in the records room gathering information when Sebastian came in on the headset. "Max, get out of the building."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Asch got spotted and Jeb Batchelder is in the building right now."

"What?!" I couldn't believe it. How did Jeb always manage to find me? I swear, I was a magnet for whitecoats.

"We don't know the details Max. Just get out of there before anybody sees you. I'll warn the others."

"What about Asch? I can't leave him."

"Don't worry about him. He can take care of himself. What's important is that you get out. Now go."

I took the papers that I had and tucked them into my shirt. I ran out of the room and down the hall where I came from. Quickly, I ran down the stairs, nearly tripping several times.

As I came to the bottom, an alarm sounded and a robotic voice came over a loud speaker, "Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert. Intruders detected within the facility."

And one of them was making a B-line for the exit. I ran down the hall towards the door, blowing past security guards who were coming out to capture the intruders. I blasted open the door and took off into the night.

I could see the others flying away. Sebastian must have gotten them the message. But there was one person who wasn't with them: Asch.

He was still in the building. I couldn't believe I left him there. I so wanted to go back in there for him, but I couldn't. _Let him be okay_ I thought. _Let him be okay_.

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Asch ran down the hall until he was cut off by a bunch of guards with big guns.

He turned around to see that there were more guards behind with guns pointed right at him.

"Freeze, get your hands in the air," said one of the guards. Asch put his hands in the air, with the bottle of Boost still in his right hand.

"What's in your hand?" yelled the guard, "Drop it."

"I can't do that," said Asch.

"You better drop it or we will open fire."

Just then Jeb came up from behind the security guards. "Is this the intruder?" he demanded.

"Yes, sir," said another one of the guards.

Asch looked over to Jeb. Their eyes met. Jeb's eyes narrowed and the he spoke, "Have we met before? You look familiar to me."

"We haven't met personally, but believe me, I know a lot about you."

"Is that so?"

"Oh, yeah. I know what you're up to, and I can tell you this; you were stopped before and you can be stopped again."

"Who are you?"

"Your new worst nightmare." Asch then concentrated on all of the security guards' guns. Suddenly all of the guards dropped their guns and rubbed their hands.

"What's wrong?" asked Jeb, "What are you doing?"

"The guns, sir," said a guard, "They became really hot."

"Hot?"

Jeb looked up only to find a knee coming right for his face. POW!! Jeb caught it right between the eyes and he went down to the floor.

As Asch landed on his feet, he turned around to look back at Jeb and yelled, "That was for Max!"

Asch ran down the hallway and found a window he leaped through with the guards chasing behind him. The glass shattered and Asch began falling, but he opened his wings and instantly took off, going just under 200 mph.

The guards looked out the window and found nothing but shattered remains of glass.

"Where is he?" demanded Jeb, being helped by a couple of guards.

"He's gone," said one of the guards, "he's just gone. He disappeared."

Jeb was incredibly frustrated. He knew he had seen that boy before. But he couldn't think of where. Thinking about it made his head hurt more.

He'd figure it out later. Right now, he needed to have the guards take him to the first-aid station so he could do something about the egg bump on his head that was turning purple.

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Please, please, please review. Don't make me beg. 


	15. Father Figure

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Max would kick my butt if I tried. Maybe JP too.

* * *

We all waited in the computer room. We were all nervous and going out of our minds waiting for Asch, fearing the worst.

Sebastian was on the radio trying to call him, but getting no response. He figured Asch must have thrown it away so that if he did get caught, they couldn't track it to us. But he didn't sound too enthusiastic.

I kept pacing the room, hating myself for leaving him behind. I can't believe I just left him in the building, knowing he was seen and that Jeb was in the building. If it was someone in my flock I'd have gone back in a heartbeat. I just couldn't believe I allowed myself to be told to let him be.

I looked over and I saw Lily sitting in the corner. She was all curled up.

I walked over to her and crouched down. "They got him, didn't they?" she said, trying to hold back sobs, "The bad guys got him, didn't they? The bad guys got Asch."

"No, no sweetheart," I said, "We don't know that. Don't think like that."

Lily started to cry. "They got him. They got my daddy."

Angel came over. "C'mon Lily," she said, "don't think like that. If anybody can outwit those Itex guys, it's Asch. I don't even need my mind reading power to figure that out. And even if he doesn't, you can rescue him."

"I can?"

"Of course you can, and we'd be there with you."

I was amazed at how well Angel managed to do with Lily. I guess they really got close in the short time they've spent together.

Lily started to stop sobbing. "Thanks you two."

Suddenly we heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Then somebody started to bang on the door. We were all hopeful that it was Asch but there was still the possibility that it was Erasers.

Calypso went to the door and looked through the peephole. She then breathed a huge sigh. "It's Asch," she said. Everyone then breathed a huge sigh of relief. Calypso opened the door and Asch came in.

"Is everybody all right?" he asked.

"Are we all right? Are you all right?!" I cried. I had to give him credit for putting his flock before himself.

"Of course I'm all right," he said, "You guys weren't actually worried about me, were you?"

Lily came running over to Asch and wrapped herself around him, still sobbing a little bit.

"Ooh, I guess I'll take that as a yes."

"I thought the bad guys got you," she said. "I thought I might never see you again."

"Oh, honey," he said, picking her up, "I'm sorry I scared you. But I did what I had to do to make sure you were safe. Besides, they couldn't touch me." Asch smiled, and it made Lily smile.

"So, what happened back there?" asked Sebastian.

"Well, after I got surrounded by a bunch of goons with guns, I came face to face with the devil incarnate."

"You met Jeb?" I asked.

"Yeah. He said I looked familiar to him, but I can't think of where he might have seen me from. But I doubt his memory will be working for awhile anyway. I gave him a nice knee to the head and dived out a window. I'd say he's looking like a sick unicorn right about now."

"Way to go Asch," said Calypso.

"So what happens now?" I asked.

"What did you find in the building?" Asch asked.

I had almost forgotten about the papers I tucked in my shirt. I pulled them out and said, "I found some really good stuff. All this is about Re-evolution being restarted; where the main stations are, who the head honchos are, everything that we'll need to know."

"Awesome, we'll look at them tomorrow. I think we should call it a night."

Lily let out a yawn. "And it sounds like somebody is ready for bed."

Asch went out of the room and went downstairs, carrying Lily.

"Wow, he's really good with Lily, isn't he?" I said.

"Just like you took good care of me Max," said Angel. I looked down at her and smiled.

"I'm glad I could." Then something occurred to me that Lily said. I looked over to the others and said, "Hey guys, did Lily call Asch daddy, or did I just imagine that?"

"Yeah," said Sebastian, "But of course, he's not really her dad. She just kinda sees him as her dad. He did practically raise her. He practically raised all of us."

"Oh, I get it."

Wow, Asch and I were almost the same. I had Angel and he had Lily. Of course, he probably did a way better job than me. Once again, I would never openly admit that.

I walked over to a table and put the files I had on a table.

I needed to talk to Asch so I went downstairs after him. I looked in his room but he wasn't in there. And neither was his keyboard.

I heard Asch and Lily talking down the hall. I went further down to see that they were in Lily's room. I came in the doorway and saw them. Lily was in her bed and Asch was sitting in a chair with his keyboard.

"How can I sleep?" asked Lily, "The bad people might know where we are."

"Don't worry," Asch said, "The bad people don't know where we are. They're not gonna get us. Here, I'll play that song you like. That'll help you relax."

Lily squealed a bit. She must have really liked the song he was gonna play.

Asch began playing. It was really soft and nice. And it was really relaxing. As Asch played, I could see Lily slowly drift into a deeper state of relaxation and then she fell asleep.

Asch kept playing for a little while longer and then realized Lily had fallen asleep and slowed the song to a stop.

He looked over to me and saw that I was in the doorway. He smiled as if he was a little embarrassed that I saw him doing this.

"What's that song called?" I whispered making sure I didn't wake Lily up.

"It's called 'Dearly Beloved'," said Asch, "She heard it from somewhere and she really liked it so I learned to play it. It wasn't really hard. Not for me anyway."

He picked up the keyboard and walked out of the room with me following. He went into his room and put the keyboard down where it was.

"We need to talk," I said.

"About what?" Asch asked, a look of concern coming over his face.

I wanted to talk to him about the what we saw in the building, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. "You take good care of them," I said instead.

Asch let out a short laugh. "I figure if I can at least keep them alive, I've done my job. All this stuff, home, food, movies, playing music to get them to sleep, it's just me going the extra mile."

"I guess I don't get extra credit."

"Oh, don't put yourself down Max. You've done a great job with them. And before you say a thing about Fang, don't worry about it. We'll find him."

"Thanks Asch. I think I'm gonna go to bed."

"All right, good night Max."

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After Max left the room, Asch reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle of Boost. He stuck it into a nearby drawer and shut it.

He would have to wait until he was alone with Sebastian to give it to him and see if he could analyze it.

He began to wonder how Fang was doing, where he was staying, if Itex was looking for him. He wanted so much to tell Max about Fang. He didn't want to hide the thing she wanted to find most from her. But he made a promise to Fang. And he was going to keep it. He was a man of his word.

_Yeah,_ he thought, _just like the promise I made to Max about seeing the world. That really worked out for me._

It pained him to keep secrets from her. And Fang wasn't the only secret that he had. All the time that he had spent with her, or away from her, he began to care for Max more than he realized. Sometimes he thought he may have even, dare he think, loved her, but he could never be sure. He never really had the chance to talk about his feelings, especially with her five year absence. But she loved Fang, and he knew it. How could he possibly talk about such things with her?

He put the thought out of his mind. Now wasn't the time to think about such things. Tomorrow they were going to find out more about Re-evolution, and now that Jeb knows somebody is on to him, he'll turn up the pressure.

He decided to go to bed. He was tired and the next day was going to be work.

* * *

Max and Asch, could we call it Maschness? I'm torn as to if something should happen between them or not. Tell me your opinion, and I'm open to all. And of course, review the chapter. 


	16. New Schemes

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. What's a fan fiction writer to do?

* * *

**Note:** I have finished reading MR3, so I might be making some MR3 references, but nothing major, since my story takes place after they beat Re-Evolution. For example, I may mention Marian Janssen or the events in Germany and other events in passing. 

Here is what won't be present for sure: Flyboys, Max's real parents, the other mutants, and ter Borcht's accent, because I can't write it. Jeb and Anne Walker are still my villains in this story.

Okay, just wanted to let you know that. Here's chapter 16.

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I woke up the next morning feeling really refreshed. I could really get used to this bed. 

I got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Afterwards, I came back to the room to get dressed. Nudge and Angel were still in bed.

I went upstairs to find Asch in the kitchen. His shirt was off and he was holding his right arm up. Calypso was with him. She was taking off Asch's bandage.

Asch looked up at me, "Hey, good morning," he said.

"Uhh, good morning," I sputtered out. Yikes. I couldn't believe I was thinking it but Asch was hot with no shirt. He wasn't ripped or anything but he was built. I quickly put the thought away.

Calypso bent down and examined Asch's wound. It was a large, pink scar now. Not as bad as when I gave it to him.

"I don't think you'll need the bandage anymore," said Calypso, "but I think you should still be careful so you don't open it up again."

"Thank you Dr. House," said Asch.

Calypso stood back up and grabbed something that was on the counter, "Here, put your shirt on," she said, throwing it to him. He put on a large, dark blue, short-sleeve t-shirt.

"Are we the only ones who are up?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Asch, "it's still a little early. It's only 8:30. But we went to bed the earliest."

"So, what's on the agenda today? Fighting some more gang members? Breaking into more buildings?"

"Well, I need to go grocery shopping today. But, we could turn that into some sort of adventure if you want."

"No thanks. I only go on adventure when I absolutely have to."

"Then what was yesterday?"

"Routine."

Asch let out a laugh. "Yeah, that really wasn't much compared to the things we've done."

"What kind of things have you done?"

"Well, we managed to destroy an Itex facility in Texas. We thought that was the base, but that wasn't the case. We did infiltrate one of their weapons research facilities in Seattle. We got some info there on new things they were developing. We've seen numerous other things, reject houses, training facilities, you name it."

"So, how'd you end up settling here in San Francisco? You sound like you've been busy beavers."

"We found this place about a month after we escaped from the Eraser attack at the ShawCorp facility. We decided to make it our base, our home. We started out with just a couple of things we found, an old couch, some blankets. We kept finding other things that we could use and then we found an Itex facility in Nevada. That's where we found the card and it… really helped."

"You guys are so lucky," I said, "you didn't have Erasers constantly chasing you, so you got to be able to stay somewhere. We always had to be on the move."

"Don't give me survivor's guilt Maxie."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to, it's just that I'm so jealous. You have this great place, and the only thing I found luxurious was a branch in a park."

"Well, you know you guys can stay as long as you want. And even longer."

"Thanks Asch."

"Hey, you're one of us. It's the least we could do."

Asch was right. I was one of them. It was so weird. It was like I had two families. I cared for both of them a lot, and now they were all together.

"Hey, I got an idea," said Asch, "let's take a look at those files you snuck out of Itex."

"Don't you want to wait until the others are up?"

"Nah, no need. Besides, we can just tell everyone else later. So, let's take a look at what we got."

I went over to the table where I left the files and picked them up. I brought them back to the kitchen and laid them out on the counter. There was a lot of good information. It looked they were going through with the same plan. Except this time a lot of countries dropped out of the picture. England was still in on it, so were France, Germany, the Netherlands and a couple of other countries. China dropped out, which was a huge surprise. I guess they didn't think we'd make good weapons anymore. I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult.

It also looked like they were operating from some sort of secret base called the Facility. Of course, there was no information on where it was. That would be easy.

It also looked like they were implying some new strategy, now that a lot of countries dropped out, but it wasn't very clear as to what that was

But there was something that was very strange. There was something in there about a device called a Subatomic Energy Core. It had something to do with the new strategy. But that was all.

I wish I had stolen more.

And here was something that was very interesting. Roland ter Borcht's name was conspicuously absent from all of these files. I guess that really was him who I met in Roland City. But what was he doing if not helping Itex? It was like every answer I got there were two more questions posed.

As we looked through the files, the others were waking up and coming to see us. They all asked what we were doing and we all explained to them about the files.

Iggy came into the kitchen and asked, "Oh, you didn't try to get the jump on me on making breakfast?"

"No," said Asch, "I'm an honorable competitor. What do you feel like making?"

"You got French Toast?"

"Sure do. And today I have to go grocery shopping, you wanna come?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I'm coming. I gotta make sure you get the right stuff."

"Oh, really. I've got the list here. And somebody can come with us to be the impartial reader of it."

"Fine."

I gathered up the files and walked out of the kitchen. When those two went at it about cooking, the place became a war zone.

We had some info on what was happening with the new Re-evolution, but not as much as we wanted. If I only had more time to steal more. But what we had was better than nothing.

There was no way we'd be able to sneak back into the new Itex building. They would no doubt beef up security now that someone was able to break in, especially while Jeb was there.

If we only had some sort of clue. _Voice? Any opinions or comments?_ I found myself thinking. But then I remembered that my Voice was gone. I was all alone inside my head. It was up to me to figure things out for myself.

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That afternoon, Jeb Batchelder was outside of the building. He still couldn't believe what had happened yesterday. He came to inspect a new building to see if it was secure and functioning, and two people break in.

After a meeting that barely decided to keep the place up, he came outside to vent. If was up to him, he would put the place down in a heartbeat for the humiliation it caused him. The swelling from the egg bump had gone down but it was still a purplish color. He had to wear a bandage to cover it up.

That kid he saw, he knew he was familiar, but he couldn't think of from where. The kid knew him somehow. And what did he mean by 'That was for Max'. He couldn't possibly have been talking about Maximum Ride, could he have? And how could have all those guns become hot for the guards? And to be able to jump in the air to _knee_ him in the face? Could he have been a hybrid? Or could he have been…

No, he couldn't have been.

Could he have been a member of Counter-Breed?

Two people walked by Jeb talking to each other wearing red jackets. It said "Fire Rats" on both the front and the back.

"We gotta do something about those strays," said one of them, "We gotta teach 'em not to mess with us."

"Yeah," said the other, "and I'd like to kick their leader's ass from here to the east coast."

"Which one is that?"

"You know, that guy with the red hair and crazy tat around his eye."

Jeb instantly came to attention. He looked up at the two boys who were walking away from him. He went after them with a quick pace.

"Uhh, excuse me, gentlemen," he said as he ran after them.

The two Fire Rat members turned around, "Yeah, can we help you?" asked the first one rudely.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation and I think I know this person you're talking about."

"Oh, really," said the other Fire Rat, "what does that got to do with us?"

"Well, he's been a thorn in my side also. What do you know about him?"

"We don't know his name," said the first, "but he's with this group of strays who live in a building in the abandoned section of the city." He pointed to it in the distance.

Jeb looked over to where the young man pointed. He could barely see it over the horizon. "He lives with strays?" he asked.

"Yeah," said the second kid, "he's with a bunch of other kids who are taking up our turf. He just got a bunch of new ones to join them too. We're gonna get rid of them, and the Tiger Sharks."

"Not before we nail that girl with the blond streaks," said the other.

Jeb couldn't believe it. That had to be Max. These two were fighting Max and someone who was possibly a member of Counter-Breed.

Jeb smiled, "Perhaps there's a way I could help you achieve that."

The two boys looked at each other and then back at Jeb, "We're listening," said one of them.

"Meet me at this building tomorrow and bring all of your friends. I think I've got something you'll like that would get rid of your… strays as you call them."

* * *

Thanks for your comments on Maschness. I'll take them into consideration. Keep those reviews coming. Thanks again. 


	17. Is It Really You, Fang?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. I'm totally serious.

* * *

I was sitting in my bed, looking through the files when I heard a rattling noise over by the window in the guestroom. I looked over to it to find someone was in the window, trying to open it.

But it wasn't just anyone. It was Fang. He was coming through the window. I was too shocked to see that it was him to get up.

He finally got through the window and came down to the floor.

"Hi Max," he said nonchalantly, as he walked towards me.

"Fang," I choked out, "it's… it's really you."

"I hope it is. If not, then there is a very serious problem."

I got up from the bed and walked over to him. He hadn't changed one bit. He still had his dark hair and tan skin. Age didn't really get me taller than him. In fact, the difference between our heights was a little greater than before.

"I really missed you Max," he said. All right, now it definitely couldn't have been Fang. He would never have said such a thing.

"I… I missed you too Fang," I said. "I… I'm sorry I ran away. I didn't mean to. I think I was just scared because I lost my memories."

"Don't worry about it, Max. What's important is that you're all right." He came closer to me and before I realized it, he was hugging me. His strong, soft hands were wrapped around my waist. It was great to feel his warm embrace again. I hugged him back and buried my head in his shoulder. I missed him so much.

After a moment, I lifted my head up to see that he was looking down at me. His eyes were so intense, and yet they were so soft at the same time.

Then he leaned down and did something I definitely didn't see coming. He pressed his lips to mine and kissed me. For a split second, I thought about pulling away, but the thought was quickly wiped away and I welcomed his lips.

Then he brought his tongue into my mouth, and once again, I welcomed it. He massaged mine with his and I did the same.

I realized that we were slowly backing up. And then we slowly eased ourselves onto the bed, knocking the papers off that I left on it.

I loved his taste, his smell, everything there was about him. Then, I just went and said the next thing that crossed my mind, "I love you, Fang."

"I love you too, Max," he whispered.

This was too good to be true. This was just what I wanted: me, him, and nothing else.

"Max," he said.

"Yes," I said. I wanted him so badly; I'd listen to anything he had to say.

"Max," he said again.

"What Fang?"

"Max," he said louder this time. I was surprised at the aggression in his voice.

"Max!" his voice was different this time. And the next thing I knew, instead of Fang who was with me, it was Asch.

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I woke up in bed with a start. The files I stole from Itex were spread out along the bed. I sat up and saw that Asch was in the doorway. He was the one who was calling my name. The entire thing had been a dream. Dammit.

"You all right?" Asch asked me.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said, a little drowsily, "I guess I just dozed off."

"I told you that you don't need to keep looking over those files. We can look up what we can on Sebastian's computer."

"I know. I just wanted to be sure we didn't overlook anything that might have been important."

"Well, anyway, it's time for dinner. I think this is Iggy and me's best one yet."

"Oh, boy," I said, getting up and walking over to the doorway. I looked over to the window in the room to see that it was still closed. No one had tried to come through it.

I guess I missed Fang a lot more than I realized. I really hoped that he was all right. But he had to be. He was Fang. If anybody knew how to survive, it was him.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" asked Asch, "You look a little dazed and confused."

That was exactly how I was feeling so of course I told him, "No, I'm all right. Let's go eat."

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The next morning, Jeb Batchelder stood at the entrance of the building with a small group of security guards.

He looked around impatiently. They should have been here by now.

After a couple of minutes, he looked to see a group of people in red jackets coming around the corner.

He smiled in satisfaction.

The entire Fire Rat came to Jeb and stopped. One of the boys whom he had met yesterday spoke up. "Okay doc," he said, "We're here. You gonna help us."

"Good morning, gentleman," he addressed them all, "I'm glad you could make it. Some of your fellow members have told me about your situation and I'm willing to help you."

"How can you do that?" asked somebody in the group.

"I have something that I can give you that will ensure that you get your turf back and be able to defend it from anyone who challenges you. Of course, if I'm going to scratch your back, you're going to scratch mine."

"Yeah, we understand. So what is it you got for us?"

"Come inside gentleman, and I'll show you."

Jeb walked into the building and the Fire Rats followed him inside, accompanied by the security guards.

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A twelve-year old girl was riding her bike by the Itex building later in the day when a strange noise caught her ear. She stopped her bike and looked toward the building. The noise seemed to have stopped as soon as she acknowledged it. She figured it was just her imagination and continued her ride.

She didn't know why, but she could have sworn the noise she heard from the building was somebody screaming.

* * *

R&R, don't be shy. I'm pretty sure these stories don't bite. 


	18. School's Out, Literally

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Oh, no. I can't think of anything clever to say.

* * *

I was in the living room watching television, but I really couldn't concentrate. I kept thinking about Itex and their new Re-evolution plan. All I had were pieces of the puzzle. Asch kept telling me to not stress out about it, but I couldn't help it.

We had looked through Sebastian's computer several times, but there wasn't really any more than we found with the files. The thing that worried me the most was the Subatomic Energy Core. I knew what subatomic energy was and if Itex was using anything that had that kind of energy, it couldn't have been good.

The others were on the first floor in the training rooms. The only ones who were upstairs were me and Asch. He was on the computer looking up recipes for him and Iggy to try.

I continued flipping channels. I switched from cartoons to reality TV (yeah right) to courtroom shows to a couple of movies.

A few minutes later, Asch came into the living room.

"Can't decide what to watch, huh?" he said.

"No, it's just that I can't focus. I've got too much on my mind."

Asch leaned up against the wall, "Look, I know I've said this before but you need to relax."

"It's hard for me Asch. As much as I like periods of rest and relaxation, I'm used to them only lasting a short amount of time. I just can't sit around. I'm a 'get up and take action' kind of person, y'know. It's who I am."

"There's just no keeping a good Maxie down, is there?"

"Not this Maxie."

"Well, I do have an idea. I was planning on going by myself just as a little recon mission, but I guess you could come if you want."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the School."

I sat up quickly and glared at him in total amazement. "What the hell are you thinking? You can't go there."

"Why not?"

"The only way anybody ever gets in there is unless they've been bound, gagged, _and _knocked unconscious, which has happened to us. The closest we've ever gotten not unconscious was to get into an exercise yard outside of it."

"So you're saying that it's impossible?"

"Pretty much."

"Then our odds can't be that bad. Last time I checked, we do the impossible on a daily basis. We fly."

"Asch, this isn't like the other time. This is serious. This is the center of it all. It's not like we can just fly over there and say 'hi' to the guard and waltz in." I couldn't believe how easy he thought breaking into the School was. I know he'd broken into some Itex buildings before, but nothing like this. I felt like Chief Brody telling Quint that he can't kill the shark. Then again, I shouldn't think like that. The shark ate Quint in the end.

"What happened to the 'get up and take action' Max that was here a couple of minutes ago? Did she hide under the couch?"

I gave him a glare. This conversation was going nowhere fast, or at least it wasn't going in my favor. It was starting to get to me.

Apparently Asch got the message because then he said, "All right, all right, I'll meet you halfway. How about this? How about we just go over there and look at what might be going down on the outside? Maybe we'll see something worth taking a closer look at."

I thought about it for a moment. I suppose there couldn't have been any harm in just surveying the area. It was possible to get near the place without being detected. It could work.

"That could work," I said, "I could go for that."

"All right, then, let's go."

"Right now?"

"Right now. I'll just leave a note for everyone else. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote:

'Went for a flight. Be back soon.' – Max and Asch

He left the note on the table in the living room.

We went to the stairway and climbed up to the roof. Before we took off, Asch asked me a question, "Hey, Max, how are you doing with your super-speed ability?"

"Okay, I guess," I said, "After seeing you do it, I think that mine was meant for long distances while yours is for short distances, like for quick movements while fighting."

"That could very well be. I can use mine for long distances, but then I get really tired."

"My only problem is that I have a little trouble stopping. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wondering, in case we ever did need to make any long distance trips. C'mon, let's go."

And go we did. The trip to Death Valley didn't take that long. I still couldn't get over the irony that the School was in Death Valley. It was just… wrong, and yet, appropriate.

It took less than an hour to reach it. We went into some trees that the building was behind. Something didn't seem right. There weren't any sounds of movement or machinery or anything. It seemed a little weird. And then I saw it.

"So, this is the big, scary, dreaded School," said Asch sarcastically.

It was hardly a time to be funny. I stared with my mouth hanging wide open. There was no School. The School was nothing more than a pile of rubble and ashes.

"I don't… I don't understand… what happened?" I managed to sputter out. I just couldn't believe it. The School was gone. It was just… gone. The most evil place in the world that I had ever known was now nothing more than a black spot on the ground.

"You smell that?" asked Asch.

I took a couple whiffs of the air. "Yeah, I smell it," I answered, "Napalm, this was done recently."

"We might as well go down there and see what's left. Maybe we can salvage something."

We flew down into the wreckage and walked around. I shuffled through a bunch of wood and metal that was nothing more than scrap, blackened with char. There was absolutely nothing that could be salvaged. Whoever did it made sure that the place and anything in it was beyond recognition.

But what I didn't understand was why. Why would they do this?

"Who could have done this? And why?" I asked out loud. I didn't realize it until Asch answered me. I was so shocked.

"My guess is somebody was on to them so they had to cut and run, or…"

"Or?"

"Or… maybe Itex thought that they were no longer… adequate."

"Adequate?! This is the most advanced building in the Itex Corporation. This is where I was born, where almost every other hybrid was born. This is the center of all of it. Or it was."

"What if it wasn't?"

The question sent waves through me. What if the School wasn't the center of it all? Holy crap, that was a scary thought.

"If not," I said, "then what is?"

"It could be that place we read in the files, the Facility."

"I shudder to think that there's a place more advanced and sinister than the School."

"That's what it's lookin' like. I guess you were right Max. This is bigger than we thought. This isn't just a re-invention of Re-Evolution, it's a huge improvement, especially to not need the School."

That was just great. An improvement of Re-evolution. As if the original wasn't flawless enough, as well as crazy, but now it was even better. The last time was hard enough, but Fang had used his blog to gather a bunch of people to help. This time it was just me and the flock. No blog, no people, no Fang.

"Man, this is _soooo_ bad," I said, "So incredibly bad."

"Let's head back," said Asch, "We're wasting time here."

So we headed back to San Francisco. We came into the Counter-Breed building. Calypso greeted us in the kitchen, "Oooh, where'd you guys go, alone?"

"Shut up," I said.

"We went to the School," said Asch.

Calypso almost choked. "What?" she coughed out. Everyone else who was in earshot came into the kitchen to ask the same thing.

"Well, actually," I said, "we were going to go to the School, but there was no School to go to."

"What do you mean?" asked Iggy.

"I mean the whole place was obliterated, destroyed, there was nothing left but ashes."

"What?!" everyone said with absolute disbelief.

"It's true," said Asch. "The place was just a grease spot."

"But why would they do such a thing?" asked Nudge.

"That's the awful question," said Asch.

"We better figure out what they're up to," said Sebastian, "fast."

"But we've got no clues," said Conrad, "nothing to go on. Where do we start looking?"

"I'd really like to get back into that new Itex building and get more files," I said, "I don't doubt that there's more info in there we could use. But there's no way we could get in now. They must have beefed up their security by now."

"We're in a real bind," said Calypso, "Itex is up to something huge, and we don't even know what it is."

"They're making sure to clean up their tracks," said Asch, "not make the same mistakes they made last time. They're not dummies."

"Sometimes I wonder," said Angel.

That made everyone giggle at least a little bit.

"Okay," said Sebastian, "Max, get those files. No more foolin' around. We're gonna dissect those files up and down and make sure we didn't miss anything."

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It was dusk. We had researched our butts off all day and we couldn't get any closer than where we were. Sebastian even managed to hack into an Itex website but he couldn't find anything. It was so infuriating, knowing that we couldn't do anything. Itex had really cleaned up after themselves.

I came up onto the roof just to get some fresh air. I felt like I was being suffocated with all the Itex junk around him.

Asch had left to go on the roof about an hour earlier. I guess he was feeling the same way.

I looked around and couldn't find him. But then I figured that maybe he was on the roof of the other building, so I flew up there. I saw him sitting on the ledge over by the binoculars that we used to see the Itex building. We could also see the sunset. It was beautiful.

I walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"It doesn't feel good, does it?" he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Not knowing what to do."

I sighed. "Yeah, it's so frustrating. I have to save the world. It's like it's programmed into my brain. But I don't know what to do. The voice is gone, the blog is gone, Fang's gone. I have to do it myself."

"No, you don't. You've got us."

"Yeah, that's true."

I looked at him and he was giving me a smile. I couldn't help but smile back. "We'll figure it out Maxie. I know we can."

We looked back out at the sunset. I was suddenly reminded of the last time me and Asch were together. When we were on the roof of the ShawCorp lab; when we had made that promise to each other.

"Hey Asch," I said, "Do you remember the day before I was kidnapped? When we were on the roof?"

Asch laughed to himself a bit. "Max, there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about it. We made a promise, to see the world with everyone else, after we saved it. And I still want to keep it."

"Oh, Asch."

"Of course, there are more people than I originally intended but we'll make due."

I laughed. "You were always good for that Asch. You were always there for me; you always made me feel better. You're my best friend."

"I really missed you Max. Losing you felt like I lost a part of myself."

I looked into his eyes. They were so strong and kind. The first twelve years of my life he was always at my side. And then we were just ripped apart from each other.

I found that we were leaning closer to each other. And the next thing I knew, our lips were pressed against each other's. We were gently kissing. For a couple minutes, it seemed right, but the reason it did wasn't right, so then I pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Asch asked quietly.

"Nothing's wrong," I said, "it's just… it's just not fair."

"What do you mean 'not fair'?"

"It's… when you're sitting here next to me, you're my absolute best friend. But when I'm kissing you, I'm… I'm wishing you were someone else."

After a moment, Asch said, "Ouch." I thought he was doing it jokingly, but I couldn't tell.

"I'm sorry."

"No, no, don't be. I understand. I really do. You really love him, don't you?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I do."

"He loves you too. I know he does. And you're right, it is unfair to him."

"How would you know if he does?"

"I… call it my bird instinct."

"Thanks for understanding Asch."

Asch got up and put his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Maxie, _I'd _be the bad guy if I didn't understand. We'll find Fang. And that's a promise I _will_ keep. I'm going inside."

He took his hand off my shoulder and flew next door. I was so glad that I had a friend like him to understand me, who would never leave my side. I trusted him as much as anyone. But I loved Fang. Asch was like my brother. But that was how I first felt about Fang. Oh, man.

Suddenly, defeating Itex seemed a whole lot simpler.

* * *

Please R&R 


	19. The Messenger

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Don't look now but there's an ERASER BEHIND YOU!!!

* * *

I woke up to the sound of the pitter-pattering of rain on the outside. I got up to find that Nudge and Angel were already out of bed. Now that was a change. I went into the bathroom and took a shower.

Afterwards I got dressed and went upstairs. I saw on a clock that it was almost 10:00 a.m. That explained why the sleepyheads were up before me. I guess I was more tired than I realized.

"She's alive," said Sebastian.

"Hey, good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty," said Asch.

"Ha ha," I said.

"We saved you some crepes Max," said Angel, "we had to make sure some were Asch's and some were Iggy's."

"Thanks guys."

I went to the dining room and found two plates that were waiting for me with crepes on them. Once again, they were both really good. I couldn't decide which batch was better. Asch and Iggy were going to be really mad at me for not being able to decide.

After I ate, I found Asch looking out the window in the kitchen.

"Hey, Asch," I said.

"Hey," he answered.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I mean about… us."

"Oh. Oh yeah, I'm fine. In fact, after thinking about it, I'm actually kind of… relieved."

"Relieved?"

"Yeah, all this time I've been wondering if these feelings I had for you were love. It turns out they are. But it's like a sister kind of love, y'know."

"Don't say that. I used to think of Fang as my brother."

"Well, that's how I feel Max. I can't help it. I love you, and because I do and because I'm your best friend, I have to accept your choice. Or, like I said, then I'd be the bad guy."

"No, you wouldn't. It'd be normal for you to feel that way, even though you're good at being the bad guy."

He must have known what I meant because he started to chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Even I have to admit, there was just a… little bit of malice behind what I did back there in Roland City."

"Malice from me choosing Fang over you?"

He nodded his head yes. This must have been hard for him to admit. "Every heart has darkness in it Max. Even mine, even yours."

"Oh, I know mine does."

"Yeah, but you always choose to be the decent person and let your enemy live with their miserable lives."

"So we're cool?"

"We're cool."

"And let's just keep this between us, okay? Especially the kiss part."

"What kiss part?" Asch smiled. He was just so cool. I was really lucky to have such good friends, especially ones like Asch.

Asch left the room and then I heard a sound coming from below me. I looked down and realized that it was Total who was at my feet, panting.

"You guys kissed? Eww," he said.

I quickly knelt down and covered his mouth. "Look, it was just a little spontaneous thing that happened that we both agree was a mistake. You got that?"

Total nodded his head.

"Don't go blabbing it to anybody, especially Angel, or I send you to where they make hot dogs."

"All right, all right, I promise," he said, "But, uhh, I'm gonna need something to insure my silence."

"I'll give you extra food when we eat, okay."

"Deal." Total walked out of the kitchen. As he did, he said, "You know, Asch was right. There is darkness in everyone's heart."

I couldn't believe this. I just made a deal with a devil dog.

I looked out the window and watched the rain run down the window. It wasn't a good day to go out for a fly, not that it wasn't possible.

And I was still being dragged down by the fact that we had no clues as to where to get the scoop on Re-evolution.

Suddenly Sebastian called out, "Hey guys, we've got company."

We all came over to the computers where Sebastian was and looked at the monitors.

"Who is it?" asked Asch.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. See for yourself."

We all looked at the monitor that watched the front door. At first I thought I was looking at a mirror. But then I realized it wasn't me I was looking at. It was a copy of me. It was Max II. She was here.

She was looking into the camera and making a 'come here' sign with her hand.

"What the hell is she doing here?" cried Calypso.

"I don't know," I said, "but it can't be good, one way or another. Look, I'll go down there and confront her."

"You sure that's a good idea?" asked Iggy, "She isn't exactly the most trustworthy person we know."

"Yeah, but she helped us in Germany," said Nudge.

"Only because she didn't want to be disposed of like everyone else," said Angel, "I don't think she was really on our side."

"Well, I'll go down there and see what she wants," I said.

"Be careful Max," said Asch.

"I will."

I went down the stairs and to the front door of the building. I opened it and came face to face with my evil twin, wet from the rain, making sure to keep the door open so it didn't close and lock behind me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I'm here to extend an invitation, courtesy of Jeb Batchelder."

"Jeb? I thought he was done with you."

"He decided to give me a second chance, and I'm making the most of it. I'm not gonna get disposed of because of someone like you."

"So, where am I invited?"

She managed to maintain a smug look despite her standing in the rain like an idiot. "You and your friend with the red hair and tattoo are invited to the Itex building you so rudely broke into a few days ago."

"Oh, really. Well, no offense but we already saw the place and we don't want to go back."

"You know, Jeb knows that you're here. If you don't come, he's got a whole bunch of Erasers just waiting to tear you and this place apart."

At first I thought it was a bluff, but then again, how could Max II have found us if Jeb didn't know where we were?

"When does he want to see us?" I decided to ask.

"Thirty minutes, meet him at the front of the building," she said.

"This better not be a trick."

"No promises. I'm just the messenger." She spread her wings and got ready to take off when I stopped her and asked her one more question.

"How come you're out here in the rain without an umbrella?"

"Jeb has been in a real bad mood lately, thanks to you. He made me come out here and ruin my perfectly good clothes just to give you this message as part of one of my 'tests'."

"I know all about those."

"Shut up. Just be there in a half-an-hour." And with that, she took off.

I went back inside and closed the door. I headed upstairs and into the computer room, where everyone was waiting.

"We heard everything," said Sebastian.

"So what do you think we should do Asch?" I asked, "The invitation is for _us_."

Asch just stood against the wall for a minute. He seemed to be thinking for a minute. Afterwards he said, "I say we just be grateful for the invitation and go."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Calypso, "This has got to be a trap."

"You're probably right. But still, we're being given an opportunity to go face-to-face with one of the head honchos. This could bear more fruit than problems. It's a risk, but I think we should take it."

"So how do we go about it?" I asked.

"Well, there are ten of us. I'd feel better if more than just the two of us went down there. So I think we should take three more with us and leave the other five here to hold down the fort."

"So who goes with us?"

"Hmmm, I know. WHO WANTS TO GET INTO THE FACE OF ITEX AND BEAT 'EM UP?!"

Everybody raised their hands, but not at the same time. Some were a little faster. "Okay, Nudge, Iggy, and Gasman were the first to raise their hands, so they're going."

"Aww man," said Angel, "I wanted to go."

I went over to Angel and knelt down and said quietly, "Its okay Angel. You should stay here anyway and protect Lily."

"Okay Max."

Before I knew it, it was time to go. I couldn't believe it. I was about to willingly walk into a trap. I must have been crazy.

* * *

Did I get you with my Eraser joke? Oh, well. Keep sending those reviews, thank you. 


	20. Trap

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Does anyone think Fang should mention this site on the blog?

* * *

The five of us flew to the front of the building. When we landed in front of the door, it automatically opened for us.

We walked inside. The place was empty, and it wasn't anymore pleasant looking than the last I was here. I kept doing 360s for any Erasers or guards, but there weren't any.

We reached the door in front of the loading dock when a voice crackled over the intercom. "Hello, Max," it said. It was Jeb.

"Where are you?" I shouted.

"I see you have once again disobeyed me. I only asked for you and Asch, and yet you brought some of your friends with you."

"Well pardon me for not trusting you. I believe that was something you taught me."

"I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm in the loading dock. The door's open."

We all looked to the door. Asch reached out and opened it. We all walked in to see Jeb standing in the middle of the room. The devil incarnate.

"It's good to see you again Max," he said.

"If only I could say the same about you," I said.

"How the hell did you figure out where we were?" asked Asch, "I know there's no way you could have tracked her here."

"You're right. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when two loudmouths from a gang were talking about you. I struck up a conversation with them, and we made a deal. They tell me where you are, and I give them something that gets them their turf."

"Which gang?"

"I believe they call themselves the Fire Rats, and as we speak, they are annihilating your friends."

"Please, the entire Fire Rat gang wouldn't stand a chance against Sebastian and the others."

"True, they wouldn't stand a chance in the state they… were in."

"What do you mean were?" I asked.

Jeb gave a cold smile, and then it dawned on me. "You turned them into Erasers."

"That's right. And I lured you her so you couldn't protect them and we could talk."

Immediately we turned to head out the door, but Jeb pulled out some sort of remote and pressed a button. The door automatically closed. Any possible exit had become sealed off.

"Let us out!" yelled Nudge.

"I can't do that Nudge," said Jeb coldly, "There is no way out. That's why they're called traps."

I looked over at Asch for a second. I wanted to chew him out for making us come, but then I realized this wasn't the time. We needed to find a way out.

"How do we get out of here?" I demanded.

"Max, Max," Jeb said, "Look at what you've become. You were supposed to lead the world into its Re-evolution. You were supposed to save the world. But you're just encouraging its further destruction. You're defending those who just slowly kill the world off. And you're beyond salvation."

"I'm encouraging the world's destruction? You're the one who's looking to take out at least half the population of Earth."

"That is merely a speeding up of the process that is already taking place. Afterwards, the world will be reborn, and there will be no more destruction. Earth will be saved. I don't understand how you can't see that."

"I don't understand how you can save Earth by destroying it."

"I'm sorry you can't Max. And I'm sorry it has to be this way." After saying that, he crushed the remote that was in his hand and then just seemed to freeze.

I looked at him strangely. He was just frozen in place. I walked up to him and touched him. There was no reaction. I knocked on his head and it felt unusually hard. It wasn't from his hard head.

"It's just a robot," I told the others.

I tore off the clothes to get a better look at the metal man Jeb left for me. Then I saw something that stopped my heart. After removing his shirt, I found a timer in the metal gears hidden beneath. There were six seconds left on it.

"Correction, he's A BOMB!!"

"MOVE!!" cried Asch, almost shoving me out of the way.

He held his arms out forward to the robot Jeb. The others and I got as far back as possible. I saw the timer turn to zero, and we all ducked.

I heard the explosion, I felt a wave of heat, and after a few seconds, I realized I wasn't dead.

I looked up and I couldn't believe what I saw. There was a ball of fire floating in the middle of the room about the size of a medicine ball. Asch had his arms out towards it. He was controlling the fire from the bomb in the Jeb robot. But he looked like he was really struggling.

"What's going on?" asked Iggy, "How come we're not dead?"

"Whoa," said Gazzy, "Asch has a hold of the fire from the bomb."

"And I don't know how long I can hold it!" he yelled, "Find a way out."

"All the exits are sealed," I said, walking over to him. Suddenly a loop of fire rose out of the ball in front of me. I jumped back for a bit. Asch seemed to focus his energy on it and it shrunk back into the ball.

"I have the fire contained but not a lot of control over the energy from the bomb inside it," he said.

I looked around desperately, trying to find a way out of the building. I looked at the giant door that trucks came through. Then I got an idea.

"Asch, do you think you could bring the ball over to the door and melt it."

After a moment, he said, "I… think I could… but I'd have to… walk it over. My entire focus and energy can… only go into this. If it breaks… we're all toast." Every word that was coming out of him seemed like a struggle for him. Perspiration was quickly forming on his forehead.

"You guys… will have to guide me."

We all got around him and the ball of fire. He slowly, very slowly, walked through the room and made his way to the door. When he did, he pressed the ball close to the door. After a few minutes, I could see the door begin to lose some of its texture.

"This could take a while," said Asch.

"We may not have a while," I said.

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Shortly after Max and the others left, Sebastian looked at the monitors and saw something alarming. There were a bunch of people in red coats heading right for the building.

"Guys," he said, "we've got company."

"What's going on?" asked Calypso.

"It's the Fire Rats. They're making their way over here again."

"In the rain? That's not like them."

Conrad went into the closet and pulled out the box of weapons. Everyone went to grab something, including Angel and Lily. Angel went to grab one of the two guns but Calypso grabbed her hand.

"When you're older," she said. She let go and Angel took a knife. Calypso then grabbed the gun and put it in her pocket.

Sebastian grabbed his sword out of the closet and then the other gun. He looked back to the monitor and saw the Fire Rats were lining up along the front of the building.

"What are they doing?" asked Conrad.

"I don't know," answered Sebastian.

He continued to stare at the monitor, when he saw something he just couldn't believe. All forty of the members of the Fire Rat gang began to morph into Erasers. All five of them stared in disbelief as the gang grew hairier and their faces became wolflike.

"What the hell?!" said Sebastian, "Is that how Jeb knew where we were, through them?"

After they finished morphing, the Fire Rats then charged the door, breaking it down.

"Let's go!" said Sebastian.

The five ran down the stairs to the first floor to take on the forty newly made Erasers. When they came down, Sebastian and Calypso took out their guns and immediately started firing into the Fire Rats. They took down twelve before the guns ran out.

Sebastian went charging in with his sword while another attacked Calypso from the side. Calypso fought him off but two others came and grabbed her, their claws digging into her arms.

Conrad went slashing away with his knife, keeping any of the Fire Rats that came near him at bay.

Angel got into the head of one of them and had him start attacking the other Fire Rats. But then she was attacked by another, breaking her concentration. But then Lily jumped onto his back and plunged her knife into his head.

Sebastian kept hacking away at Erasers, cutting off limbs and heads.

Calypso managed to fight off her Erasers but was forced up the stairs into the second floor. She backed up while several Fire Rats slowly stalked her, beginning to smile like they believed they had her. Calypso backed up past the first bedroom. Then she got an idea.

She continued backing up until the Fire Rats were in front of the bedroom door. Calypso let her concentration fall on the bed in the room. Suddenly, it flew out the doorway and crashed violently into the first Fire Rat, knocking him into the other room. The rest began to charge her. She made several more beds fly out of the rooms and ram the other Fire Rats.

There was still one left standing that started leaping towards her. Quickly, Calypso found Asch's keyboard and hurled it out of his room and into the sternum of the Eraser, knocking the wind out of him. Calypso started to run up the stairs to the first floor.

Conrad had managed to stab several Fire Rats, but more just kept coming.

Angel and Lily stayed close together but they weren't able to mount much of an offense. Sebastian came to them and defended them. Conrad joined them and they all grouped together and started backing up the stairs. There were still about twenty left.

"Lily, Angel," Sebastian whispered, "run to the third floor, now."

The two girls did what they were told and started running. The Fire Rats charged them. Sebastian managed to stab one in the chest but then another grabbed his wrists and wrenched the sword from his hands. They all attacked Sebastian and Conrad, with the two boys fighting them off with their fists.

Calypso came to the first floor, only to be hit in the head with a crowbar by Max II, who had snuck in through a window.

Soon after, Angel and Lily came up the stairs. They came face to face with Max II but before they could react, she hit them both in the head with the crowbar, knocking them unconscious.

"Too easy," she said. She picked Lily up over her shoulder and scooped Angel up in her other arm. She escaped out the window with them.

Calypso came to and looked ahead of her. There was some sort of device in front of her with a timer on it. The timer had two seconds left on it. She suddenly realized what it was. It changed from one to zero.

She felt an intense rush of heat, and then nothing.

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Asch was finally able to make a hole in the door wide enough for us to go through safely. He went out with the ball of fire still out in front of him. The rest of us quickly got out as well. The rain was still coming down, the drops near the ball evaporating before they could touch it.

"Now what?" asked Gazzy.

"I… got to… get rid of this thing," said Asch.

"How?" I asked, looking around for a safe place to get rid of it, as if there was such a thing.

"The air," he said, "Two of you… carry me up in the air… and I'll let it explode safely. I can't… concentrate on flying… with this thing."

"Nudge, help me," I said.

Nudge came over and got on one side of him and I got on the other. I grabbed one of his arms and she grabbed the other. We spread our wings and flew up into the air.

A couple of more loops in the ball came out as we took Asch into the air, but Asch managed to keep them down. We made it to about a thousand feet in the air when we stopped.

"All right," said Asch, "this is far enough."

He raised his arms into the air. The ball began to slowly rise.

"I'm gonna push this thing… as far away as I can," said Asch, "then I need you girls… to bring us back to Earth… as fast as you can."

"Got it," I said.

The ball slowly rose to about five feet away from us. "That's as far… as I'm gonna get. All right, I'm letting go… NOW!"

In a flash, me and Nudge pulled down and headed for Earth as fast as we could. I could feel heat coming down on us for the first few seconds. But then it cooled.

We made it to the ground and then Asch collapsed, breathing heavily. I looked up into the air to see an amazing cloud of fire disappearing. That explosion would have taken out the entire building.

After a few minutes, Asch breathing returned to normal, but he was still worn out. "Wouldn't want to do that again," he said.

"Can you still fly?" I asked.

"Yeah, just give me a minute to get my strength back."

"We got to get back to the others," said Iggy, "they're in trouble."

"Right," I said.

"Let's go," said Asch.

But just as we were about to take off, there was an explosion in the distance. A large, fiery cloud came out in the distance, where the Counter-Breed home was.

"NO!" cried Asch.

* * *

Please keep R&Ring. 


	21. The Pain of Loss

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Write, disclaim, repeat. Write, disclaim, repeat.

* * *

We quickly flew over to the Counter-Breed building, but we all knew that it was already too late. Asch was ahead of us. He couldn't use his super-speed because he was still reeling from holding the ball of fire, but he still pushed on.

We made it to where the building once stood. Now it was just ashes. Some fires from the explosion were still burning.

I landed in the pile of black char, as did everyone else. We all looked around; praying the others had survived, but we didn't have much hope.

Asch was the most desperate. He quickly looked around everywhere with a look of fear I don't think I've ever seen on anyone before.

I scrounged around on the ground looking for some sort of sign or remains of the others. I didn't want to find them, but I knew I had to.

There were a lot of remains of bodies that I found. But they were all from Erasers. There were also remnants of red jackets near them all. They must have been from the Fire Rats. Jeb was willing to sacrifice an entire group of kids if meant getting rid of us.

My arms were becoming black from all the char that I was digging through, the falling rain making it muddy. I even burned myself a couple of times from the embers in the wood.

Then I found the one thing I didn't want to find. I found a necklace on the ground near what was left of a burned body. I recognized the necklace as Calypso's.

"Asch," I called.

He came over to me and I showed him what was in my hand. He knelt down and took it. His lower lip trembled a bit.

"I'm sorry Asch," was all I could say.

Suddenly we heard some sort of moaning sound. We looked over to the direction it was coming from. There was a body on its side in the pile of burned wood.

The two of us rushed over to it. It was Sebastian. He was still alive. I was so overjoyed and Asch must have been feeling triple what I was feeling.

We turned him on his back and our happiness quickly turned to despair. As we turned him over, we saw that there was a piece of burned wood through his chest.

"Oh, no," I said.

"Asch," said Sebastian.

"No, man, don't talk," said Asch.

"Asch," Sebastian said again.

"Don't talk Sebastian," said Asch, "it's zapping your energy." We both got all of the debris off of him. Asch lifted his head and shoulders.

"They… took… Lily and Angel," Sebastian sputtered out.

"What?" I asked.

"Max II… she took the both of them… before the place went up." He then gasped in pain. Looking at him like this was really hard to see. "Calypso… and Conrad got… caught in it… too. I'm sorry, Asch. I couldn't… couldn't protect them."

"No, no, don't be sorry," said Asch, "You got nothing to be sorry for. C'mon man, don't die on me. I need you."

Asch started to break down. I couldn't believe it. I never thought I would ever see Asch cry, but here he was. "NOOOOOO!" he cried

I looked down at Sebastian. His eyes slowly closed and his body slumped in Asch's arms.

Sebastian, Calypso, and Conrad were gone. Half of the Counter-Breed was dead.

Asch was clutched Sebastian's body and continued crying. I decided to leave him alone and walked away. I gathered the others and explained the situation. We stood over at the other end of the building and let him be alone for a few minutes.

I couldn't believe this. I should have known that this was all a trap. If only I didn't go, I might have been able to stop the Fire Rats. Or I might have been one the many bodies scattered on the ground. And Asch wanted to bring some of the others with us. What if just the two of us went? Then it would be me crying over Iggy and Gazzy and Nudge.

Asch had saved the lives of my family at the cost of his. Like I didn't feel bad enough, now that just made me feel worse.

After a few minutes, Asch came over to us. He had settled down a bit.

"We're really sorry," said Nudge, "we know how much they meant to you."

"Yeah, man," said Iggy, "we're gonna avenge them. They'll pay for this."

"We'll really miss them too," said Gazzy.

"Thanks guys," said Asch, "it really means a lot that you care."

"So what happens now?" asked Nudge.

"We have to rescue Angel and Lily," I said, "If we can find a way to figure out where they were taken."

"My guess would be the Facility," said Asch.

Suddenly we heard the sounds of sirens. Fire trucks were coming our way.

"We got to get out of here," I said.

"But what about…" said Asch, but I had to interrupt him.

"I'm sorry Asch, but we have to leave their bodies here. We'll have to take care of them later. Or maybe the officers will get them and we can claim them later."

"But…" he then sighed, "all right."

We all spread our wings and took off before somebody could see us. I didn't know where we were going to go. I decided we should go to the park where no one would see us and we could decide what to do next.

There was a stream in the park so we landed by it. As we did, the rain began to slow down. We washed our hands and faces of the char on them.

"So where do we go?" asked Asch, "We have no home, and no way of finding the Facility."

That shocked me. I was expecting Asch to have a plan, but he was asking me what we should do. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. He had to be feeling really depressed.

"I don't know," I said, "You still have your Itex card?"

"It was in the building."

"Oh, well, I've still got mine in my pocket, thank goodness. We'll buy some supplies and camp out here for the night."

"So," said Iggy, "it's back to the good ol' days again, huh?"

* * *

I know, it's a kind of a sad chapter, but still, please review it. 


	22. Salt in the Wound

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Too bad, so sad.

* * *

We went to a Wal-Mart that we found and got some things. Back-packs, some food, you know, back to the basics. All the time we didn't say much. We were all still a little down, especially Asch. He was virtually mute.

When we were finished getting our supplies, we headed back to the park. It was still late afternoon. The rain had stopped.

We all just kind of hung around. We were full of things we wanted to say, but we just couldn't day them. What was there that could be said? Itex got us. They finally did the one thing we were afraid of. They found us and killed us. Well, not _us_. Just some of us. And our spirit.

We ate in silence and in our own little spots. I just couldn't believe how depressed we were. That I was.

Nighttime came and everyone went in various spots in some of the trees. I had the first watch. I sat in a branch with a lantern that we bought at my side on low.

Asch came up to my branch and sat next to me. "Can't sleep, huh?" I asked.

"Can you?" he asked.

"Why do you think that I took the first watch?"

Asch sighed and put his face in his hands. After a few seconds, he slid hi hands down and said, "You know, this is the first time I've ever not known what to do."

"Welcome to our world Asch," I said.

"Oh, man. It was going to be Conrad's birthday in a couple of weeks. I was gonna get him a synthesizer. He wanted to learn how to play piano too."

"Look, Asch, I'm really sorry for your loss. I know they felt more like family to you than me because I've been gone so long, but now is not really a good time to mourn. Now, we need to figure out what our next move is in stopping Itex and rescuing Angel and Lily."

Asch was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking about what I was saying. I continued.

"I can understand how you feel Asch. But right now, you need to focus on getting back what you still have left of your family. You need to get Lily back."

"Yeah, I know," he said, "You're right Max. Thanks."

"When this is all over, we'll recover their bodies and give them a proper burial."

"Thanks Max."

"You really shocked me when you asked _me_ what we should do. I thought you were out of it."

"Maybe I was. But even so, I'm not surprised. I've always kinda looked up to you Max. Just like your flock does."

"You do?"

"Well, yeah. I guess you figured I kinda took over when you came here. If I did, I didn't mean to. I'm just so used to being a leader."

"And you're a whole lot better at it than me."

"No Max, you're doing great. Like I said, as long as you keep 'em alive, you're doing your…" Asch paused for a few seconds, realizing what he was saying, "…job. And I just failed miserably."

"Asch stop beating yourself up. It's not your fault, its Itex's fault. They're the ones to blame, not you."

Asch nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that."

"It's okay. So, you gonna go to sleep?"

"Nah, I don't think I can. If you want to though, go ahead. I'll take your watch."

"That's all right. I'm not gonna be able to sleep either."

So we both stayed up. Eventually, my tiredness caught up with me and I fell asleep. Asch kept watch until whoever the next person was to take over for him.

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The next morning, we woke up to a clear sky. We all came down from the trees. We decided that we would go out for breakfast using the card. We found a nice, little restaurant and we were seated quickly.

As per usual, we had to order a whole lot of food. Thankfully, the waiter didn't put up a fuss about and we didn't need a repeat of the restaurant in New York.

After we got out, Nudge asked, "So what do we do now? We don't have any leads. How are we gonna figure out what to do?"

"Max?" asked Asch.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Could we just go back to… my house one more time? There just something I need to check for."

"What's that?"

"I just need to see if something survived. Where I kept it, it might have, and it's really important."

"All right, but let's not hang around there."

"This shouldn't take too long."

We walked back over to the wreckage. We couldn't fly because I was enforcing my "no flying in cities rule".

When we made it, Asch started looking around through the rubble. The firemen had put out the fires that were still going yesterday. And it looked like they cleared out the bodies.

I walked up to Asch. He seemed to be picking up what was left of a drawer. Through the char, I was able to recognize it as his. He was searching through it.

"So, what is it you're looking for?" I asked.

"A little bottle," he said, "I found it in an Itex building and me and Sebastian were gonna study what was in it." After that, he let out a huge sigh. He put down the drawer and said, "It's gone."

"Sorry, Asch,"

He had a look of disappointment on his face. I guess whatever it was he was looking for was pretty important.

"Okay, let's get out of here," he said.

We turned around to head out when Gazzy cried out, "Max, look!"

We all looked up to see something that almost knocked me off my feet. Up ahead of us, standing by the wreckage, was Anne Walker. The head honcho, or at least one of the major big wigs, was standing here, menacingly.

"Hey you!" I yelled.

"Now Max," she said, "I think we've known each other long enough to be on a first-name basis, rather than just calling me 'hey you'."

All of us walked up to her. She didn't move though. She just stood in the position she was in.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Last time I saw you, you were at your house with your puppets Jeb and Ari."

"I'm just here to survey my success," Anne said.

"What success?" asked Iggy.

"Destroying part of the Counter-Breed of course."

I couldn't believe how coldly she sounded. This was the same woman who said she wanted to be part of my "becoming". Now she was talking about killing people as if it was mowing the lawn.

"What did you with Angel and Lily?" I demanded, "And where's Fang?"

"Angel and Lily are just fine," she said coolly, "But they're with Jeb. So I wouldn't know much more. As for Fang, perhaps you should ask your friend there."

She pointed and I looked to where she was pointing. She was pointing at Asch. He was giving her a death stare.

I looked at Asch for a few seconds. Could he have really known where Fang was? Could Asch have been lying to me about him all this time? No, why would he do such a thing?

"Well, I have to go," said Anne, "so farewell for now."

Suddenly a rift opened up behind Anne. It was Lily's rift. Now what was going on? Anne backed up into it.

"Oh no you don't!" yelled Asch. He started running after Anne. Anne disappeared in the rift and then Asch less than a second later. The rift closed up and they were both gone.

"No," I said, "they're gone."

The others walked up to me.

"What was that about?" asked Iggy.

"Do you guys think Asch really knows where Fang is?" asked Nudge, "If he did, then that would mean that he was lying to us all this time. Why would he do that?"

"I… I don't know," I said.

"Way to fall into their trap Max," said a voice a distance. I looked over to where it came from. It was Max II.

"What… what are you doing here?" I asked.

She started walking over to us. "I can't believe you fell for it. Even I didn't think this plan would work, but you walked right into it."

"And I suppose you're just here to rub it in, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Plus, I thought it was time we settle the score from Florida." She got into a stance like she was ready to fight when another voice called out.

"Max," it said.

We both looked over and another rift showed up right near us and none other than Jeb came out. "Max, I specifically told you not to come back here and pick fights. This is insubordination."

"Screw you," said Max II, "this is personal. It's none of your business."

"If it involves Max, then it is my business." A rift opened up beside him. "Now go back, right now. I'll deal with you later."

Max II had a very annoyed look on her face. With a scowl, she walked past Jeb and into the rift. The rift closed behind her and all that was left was Jeb.

"I'll ensure she receives the proper punishment," he said.

"Like I care," I said, now completely frustrated, "What have you done with Angel and Lily? And where's Fang and Asch?"

"You have no need to worry about the two girls. I can assure you we're taking very good care of them. We're continuing our experiments on Angel that you so rudely interrupted a few years ago. And Lily is proving to be quite useful. We've persuaded her to use her ability to help us get from place to place."

"Persuaded her?" asked Iggy, "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. It's what we'll do to Angel if Lily refuses to cooperate. As crucial as Angel is to our research, we could manage without her."

"You bastard!" I yelled, "How can you do such a thing to a couple of little girls? How do you sleep at night knowing you do such horrible things to people?"

"Like a baby."

"I bet. You better take me to them you little creep."

"They certainly seem very important to you to want to save them so badly." He slowly walked up to me until he was mere inches from me. I was on the verge of being pissed off beyond the point of no return, and he was coming closer to me. I had to give him points for bravery.

"Of course they're important to me. Where have you been for the past few years?"

"Show me how important Max."

"What?"

"Show me how important they are to you, and perhaps I'll let you see them."

My emotions were going crazy. I wanted to burst out into tears about how much I wanted to save Angel, my baby, and her friend. But at the same time, I didn't want to break down in front of Jeb. That would just make me look weak and he'd go on to say what a failure I am for giving in so easily.

My mind was racing as to what to do. Jeb and what was left of my flock were just staring at me, waiting to see what I was going to do.

Before I realized it, I was getting down on my hands and knees. "Please, please let me see my Angel. Take me to my little girl."

I couldn't believe what I was doing. And the worst part was I couldn't deny it. Everybody around me, except Iggy, saw it.

"I see," said Jeb, "you really do care for Angel. And you'll probably do anything to help Lily, right?"

I nodded my head.

"I see. In that case, the answer is no."

Everything thing I was feeling just then all turned into rage. I jumped back up to my feet and screamed, "You frigging bastard!"

Without thinking about it, I slugged Jeb right in the mouth and he went down. Damn, it felt good.

Just then, several rifts opened up and a bunch of Erasers came out of them, surrounding us. They must have been making sure I didn't do anymore damage to Jeb.

Jeb got up, holding his jaw. "That was a test Max," he said slightly muffled, "and you failed."

"I am so… FUCKING tired of your TESTS!"

"You allow your emotions to govern you Max. You let them affect the decisions you make. And your emotions allow you to be attached to other people. A true leader wouldn't let that happen. You're too attached to those you work with."

"Well that's your opinion. What would you know about being a leader?"

For once, Jeb didn't have an answer. Instead he said, "It's such a shame Max. You held so much promise. Wait a second… where's Asch?"

"I don't know. He jumped into a rift after your boss and disappeared."

"Did he now? This should be quite interesting." A rift opened up behind Jeb.

I whispered into Iggy's ear, "We're gonna jump in after him."

"How come?" he asked.

"Maybe he could lead us to where the others are."

"I heard that Max," said Jeb, "And you don't want to be reckless. Do you want to end up like Fang?"

"What? What do you know about Fang? What did you do to him?"

"It's not what I did to him; it's what he did to himself. He's a lot like you Max. He lets his emotions govern him too. And look what it got him."

"What are you talking about? What happened to him?"

But all Jeb did was back through the rift.

"Hey, come back here!" I shouted but the rift closed.

The Erasers that surrounded us started to close in. I figured it would be good for me. Beating the crap out of them would help me work off some frustration.

The others and I backed up against each other. Suddenly a rift opened up from beneath us. We fell through it and into a hole, screaming from the surprise as we did.

We all fell down on our butts and we were in some sort of bluish-grey portal thing. All around us was some sort of swirling mix of blue and grey.

"Where are we?" asked Gazzy.

"What just happened?" asked Nudge

"I really wish I knew," I said.

I looked around until I saw a figure nearby. He was wearing a black hoody sweatshirt. The hood was up so I couldn't really see his face. He was holding a white box in his hand. He didn't say a word.

We all walked up to him. When we reached him, he handed me the box. I looked into his hood. The shadow from the hood shrouded his face.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The figure said nothing. He merely shook the box in his hand, indicating he wanted me to take it. I did. After I did it, he took off running.

"Wait," I said, my voice echoing.

But the person didn't stop and he soon disappeared. I opened the box up and we all looked at what was inside. The first thing was a photo. I picked it up and recognized what the photo was. It was a photo of the manor in Montana. The second thing was really strange. It was a DVD package of the movie _Birdman of Alcatraz_.

"That's strange," said Nudge.

"What do you think they're supposed to be?" asked Gazzy, "Some sort of clue?"

"What is it?" asked Iggy.

"The stuff in this box that some guy gave us," said Nudge, "There's a picture of the manor we were in and a DVD of a movie called _Birdman of Alcatraz_."

"You're right. That is odd."

"I'm wondering who that guy was," Gazzy said.

After a moment, I had a thought as to who it might have been, "You think it might have been Fang?"

"You think?" Nudge said enthusiastically.

"I don't know. It's just a feeling I have. But if it was him, why would he run away from us? Wouldn't he stay?"

"Good point."

"So how do we get out of here?" asked Gazzy.

I looked around the swirling vortex we seemed to be in, "Well, that guy got out. So can us."

We all started walking down in the way the mysterious figure took. Eventually we came to see a rift that was open. It looked like Lily's rift. Could she have been the one who brought us here?

We all kind of looked at each other and mentally agreed to go through.

We did. When we came out the other side, I recognized where we were. "Hey, I know this place," I said, "We're near Ella's house."

* * *

What happened to my reviewers? Don't be afraid. Say anything you'd like about my story. Just no flames. 


	23. Asch Captured

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. If anyone thinks JP robbed us of Faxness in the end of MR3, raise your hand.

* * *

Asch woke up feeling very dazed. He slowly opened his eyes only to realize that he was in darkness. He tried to move but found that he couldn't. His entire body was numb, deprived of almost all physical feeling.

_What's going on?_ he wondered, _Am I dead? I should have known better than to just go jumping into the rift right after her. Stupid, stupid, stupid_.

He felt wetness around him, like he was floating on water. Only it wasn't really water, it felt more like a thin jelly. _Where am I?_

He remembered jumping into the rift after Anne Walker. He managed to grab a hold of Anne and was prepared to start wailing on her. But before he could land a single blow, he got buried by a group of Erasers, getting him off of her. He started to fight them off but he was quickly beaten back and then knocked unconscious. The next thing he knew, he was in this endless blackness.

All he could think about was where he was. Was he in the Facility? Or another Itex building? Or maybe he was dead. Or in some sort of purgatory.

Whatever it was, it was making him feel very uneasy. He tried making fire so that we would have some light to see, but it was no use. When he tried, his head started to hurt. Whatever this place was, it was preventing him from using his pyrokinesis. He could barely move, so hyper-speed was out of the question as well.

He didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit.

He couldn't even tell how much time had passed. It was like this place was devoid of time. Just an empty void that time forgot.

He stopped trying to think about where he was. If that was all he thought about then he would surely go crazy. He needed to focus on other things. Keep his mind occupied with thoughts that wouldn't keep him asking himself questions.

He started singing to himself. He began singing every song he knew, and he knew a lot.

After somewhere between what could have been ten minutes or ten million years, a light suddenly broke through the darkness. It was almost like daggers stabbing him in the eyes. Hands reached out and grabbed his body. Someone may as well have been taking a chainsaw to him.

He was yanked out of wherever he was and dragged against the floor. Voices spoke out around him, and it felt like his eardrums were about to explode.

"Quick, get him into the room before he gets his feeling back," said one.

"Hurry, the boss is waiting," said another.

Asch was dragged through a hallway and then brought into a room where he was placed in a chair that was at a table.

As Asch's feeling returned to him, he realized that the whole room was white. The table and chair he was sitting at were a dull grey. Behind him there was a window, probably one way. He then realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes. All he had on was his boxers. His back was wet with the liquid that he had been floating in.

Before his feeling fully returned, somebody came into the room. Asch looked over to see that it was Jeb. Anger instantly boiled over him. Jeb sat down across the table from him like he was any other person.

"What's going on?" Asch asked. "What the hell did you put me in?"

"You were in what's called an isolation tank," said Jeb, "A sensory-deprivation chamber. We had to put you in it to keep you from causing trouble for anyone. You should feel honored. We've only had to put one other person in one of those, and that was Max."

"Sorry if I'm not flooding with praise. Where are we?"

"Another thing you should feel honored about. You're in the Facility."

"Oh, this is great. I've always wanted to go to hell. Wait a minute, why am I sitting here talking to you? I should just fry your ass right now."

He rose up his hand and got ready to light up Jeb when Jeb said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not?" Asch asked with his hand still raised.

"Take a look at that device that's right above me."

Asch looked up and saw some sort of gadget. It looked like a gun protruding out of the wall that was close to the ceiling. It had some sort of gadget attached to it that was glowing red. It was pointed right at him.

"That is a heat-sensory gun," said Jeb, "If anywhere in this room reaches over 80 degrees, that gun starts firing, and you're right in its line of fire."

"You think of everything, don't you?" said Asch, putting his hand down.

"I think you've asked enough questions for now. It's time for me to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer them."

"What if I don't?"

"You see, I'm doing this at the request of my boss, Anne Walker, the one you tried to attack not too long ago. If it was up to me…" Jeb pulled out a gun and pointed it at Asch, "you would be dead right now. So you should feel pretty lucky."

"Why does Anne want me alive?"

"Because you can tell us all there is to know about the flock. And of course, how well we treat you will depend on your cooperation."

"You honestly think I'm gonna cooperate with you. You must be nuts."

"No, actually I don't. So I've come up with an alternate solution to our problem."

Jeb fired the gun and Asch got hit in the shoulder, knocking him out of the chair. Jeb stood up with the gun still pointed at him. Asch looked to his shoulder. He found that he hadn't been shot with a bullet. He had been shot with a needle, a clear liquid quickly draining out of it and into his body.

Asch stood up and pulled the needle out, but not before the liquid was emptied out. "What the… what did you just shoot me with?!" Asch yelled.

"That was a truth serum, Asch," said Jeb, "It's mainly SP-17, what the KGB used to use, but with a couple of my own touches. I find that a bit of Valium and Ecstasy in it make the subject feel a little more pleasant rather than pressured. It takes a couple of minutes to take effect. Of course, it will be a lot faster with you because your blood flow is much faster. Oh, and you're going to want to sit down. If it takes effect while you're standing up, you'll get very, very dizzy."

After a few seconds, Asch sat back down. "You're not going to get anything out of me."

"We'll see about that."

"You bastard."

"You know, I get that a lot, especially from Max. I should make it my nickname. Jeb 'the Bastard' Batchelder. Has a nice ring to it."

Asch just glared at Jeb, the man who killed his family. He was going to get him. If not Max, then definitely him. And he would make him suffer. Max might show him mercy and make it quick, but he wanted to make this geek feel pain, real pain.

"I'm sorry," said Jeb, "that was a poor attempt at humor."

Suddenly, Asch felt like his head weighed a thousand pounds. It must have shown on his face because Jeb said, "You see, it's taking effect."

He felt like he was being slowly steamrolled, his head getting it first, and then the rest of his body. Everything feeling like it was being compressed.

But then his body started to relax on its own. His whole body felt tight, but now it was really unwinding. He started to feel like his whole body was his funny bone that had just been hit.

Asch started to giggle uncontrollably. He was at the mercy of the truth serum now. He was completely helpless.

His giggles turned to laughs now. Jeb just sat and watched. This would pass in a couple of minutes and then Asch would feel completely relaxed. The most he would have would be a dumb grin on his face. The only disadvantage to his serum was that the subject would always go into small fits of laughter every once in a while.

Asch's laughs started to slow as he began settling down. When his laughing slowed to a stop, Asch said, "Man, I feel good." It came out somewhat drowsily because of the drug.

"Glad to hear it," said Jeb, "now I'm going to ask you some questions, and just answer to the best of your ability, all right?"

"Sure, whatever doc," Asch said drowsily. Everything he said was coming out like he was drunk or had just woken up.

"What is your name?"

"Asch."

"Do you know what your real name is? If you have one?"

"Tyler Ashton."

"Who are your parents?"

Asch was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. "Mr. and Mrs. Ashton? I don't know. All I do know is that my parents worked for ShawCorp. We were all given nicknames. The company figured it would be better to use children of their own rather than children of others. Unlike you. You stole the children or paid the parents off, you rotten ass."

Jeb ignored the comment. It was just a side affect of the drug. He wasn't in complete control of what he was saying. Although much of it would most likely be true, or Asch would think it's true.

"Do you know what Lily's real name is?" Jeb asked.

"Lillian Cutler."

"I see," Jeb pulled out a pad and paper and started writing something down. "Do you know where the flock might be right now? Or where they might go?"

Asch shook his head. But then he said, "Oh, wait a minute. They might go to Dr. Martinez's. She's a friend of Max's. She'll take care of them. I went to see her once. I gave her directions to my place that I told her to give to Max. I figured she would go there at some point." Asch began laughing again, from the drug. "I am so smart," he managed to squeak out.

"Yes," said Jeb, "that's why you're here. Because you're so smart."

Asch began settling down, "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Where does this Dr. Martinez live?"

"Somewhere in the middle of Arizona. I forget the name of the town."

Jeb did a little more writing on his pad.

"What are you writing?" Asch asked.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself about."

"Oh, okay."

"Now, do you know where Fang is?"

"If I did, I'd be visiting him to smack him in the head for what he did."

"So that's a no."

"Right."

"Now, I'm aware of what happened with Fang. I know he stole Boost and took it. And I know he went into several confrontations with my son Ari. What I don't know is what happened to Ari."

Asch laughed a little bit, "Ari's dead."

"What?"

"Fang finally killed him. That's why he took the Boost. So he could beat him and get Max away from him. You must have been so proud of your son to have such thoughts. To kidnap Max for himself for his own little… fantasies."

"I can assure you, I didn't support that in any way. If he died, it was of his own foolishness."

"You don't sound very distraught."

"Trust me, I am. Now I have one last question for you. This is very important so pay attention. What did you find out when you broke into the building a few days ago?"

"Oh, we found a lot. We found those rejects that you were gonna dump. We found out about who stayed with the project and who ducked out. We found out about the Subatomic Energy Core, whatever that is. Oh, yeah, and we found out that Roland ter Borcht is no longer on board.

"Is that it?

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. We couldn't find anything more."

"I see. Well, thank you Asch. You've been most helpful." Jeb waved over to the window and began to get up. Two men came into the room and grabbed Asch.

"You'll never do it," said Asch, "Max will stop you. You're just gonna fail."

"We'll see," said Jeb.

The two men brought Asch out of the room and into the hallway. Standing by the one-way window was Anne Walker. "What do you want us to do with him?" asked one of the men.

Anne stood and thought about it for a minute. "Hmm, put him back in the tank. The serum will wear off soon and he might still be useful before we dispose of him."

Asch looked up and started yelling, "No, no, not the tank. Don't put me in that tank!" He tried to struggle away from the two men but the serum still had his body relaxed. It was no use. The men dragged him back to the tank and shoved him in.

Once again, Asch was shrouded in darkness and lost of almost all feeling.

* * *

Thanks to all my readers who have stayed with me so far. Keep on reviewin'. 


	24. Pieces of the Puzzle

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. If you haven't gotten that by now, then there is a problem.

* * *

"… so we entered the rift and ended up here," I finally finished explaining.

We were back at Ella and Dr. Martinez's house. They were really happy to see that we were back, but when I told them everything that's happened, those expressions quickly changed.

"Wow, what an amazing story," said Ella.

"My gosh," said Dr. Martinez, "Those Itex people are so terrible. Doing that to your friends.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Ella.

"Well," I said, "we were hoping we could stay here until we could figure that out. But now that Itex is after us again, I'm not sure I want to do that. I don't want to endanger you."

"Max," Dr. Martinez said, "Don't worry about that. Like I said before, you are always welcome here. Besides, you all look like you could use some rest."

I couldn't help but smile. I couldn't believe that Dr. Martinez was willing to take us in, despite the story we just told her. She truly was amazing.

"Thanks, Dr. Martinez."

"In the meantime, why don't I make you something to eat?"

"Stop being so nice. You're gonna make me feel so bad to leave you again."

"I don't mind Max," she said, getting up and heading into the kitchen.

"Your mom is amazing," said Iggy.

"I know," said Ella, "but I'm still really glad that you're here. It's just too bad about your friends. I wish I could do something."

"Trust me Ella," I said, "the best way you could help is not get involved. The last thing I want is you guys in trouble because of us."

Ella looked a little disappointed, "Oh, okay Max. If you say so."

For a while we just sat around. We weren't really in a talking mood. We had never been this depressed before. Especially me.

Everything around me was falling apart. Itex had found us again, half of the Counter-Breed was gone, Asch had disappeared, Angel and Lily had been kidnapped, and Fang was still missing. This was just a complete downer.

Nudge decided to speak up, "Hey, why don't we check out those things that guy gave us in the weird place?"

I looked over at the box. I had left it on a table in the living room. I went over and picked it up and brought it back to where I was sitting. I pulled out the photo and the DVD.

The photo wasn't anything special. There wasn't anything on the back. It just showed the manor where the others and I were kept for the past two years. I still wondered what it was supposed to mean. That guy in the hoody must have been trying to tell me something with it. But what?

The DVD of _Birdman of Alcatraz _was even more puzzling. I opened the package up, expecting to find a note or something. No such luck. It was just DVD disc.

"Maybe we're supposed to watch the movie," suggested Gazzy, "Maybe there's something on it that we're supposed to see."

"Maybe it's not even a DVD," said Iggy, "Maybe it's a disc in disguise with stuff on it that we need to know."

"There's only one way to find out," I said, "Ella, do you have a DVD player?"

"Sure, we do," said Ella, "Give me the movie. I'll put it in."

Ella walked up to me and I handed her the disc. She went over to a cabinet with a DVD player in it and opened it up and put the disc in the player.

The movie came on. It was in black and white, so it must have been old. We all watched, except Iggy who had Gazzyy explain some things, the story of Robert Franklin Stroud played by Burt Lancaster. He was a prisoner who had murdered a man in Alaska. He was one of those rebellious, stand-out fighter types, I guess kind of like us. During his imprisonment, he started adopting birds and when they got sick, he started experimenting with them to find cures. All in all, it was a pretty good movie.

The only thing was that we didn't see anything that was related to us. After watching it, Dr. Martinez announced that dinner was ready.

We went into the dining room to find that she had made about seven pizzas for us.

As we ate, we all started getting into the habit of conversation again. "So, what were you watching in the other room?" asked Dr. Martinez.

"_Birdman of Alcatraz_," said Nudge.

"Oh, I saw that one. It was good, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was," I said, "That guy in that void thingy gave it to us. I think it's supposed to be some sort of clue as to what we're supposed to do next. But we didn't find anything."

"Hmm… maybe you need to watch it more closely."

"I guess that makes sense."

After we all had our fill of pizza, we went back into the living room to watch the movie again. This time we analyzed it rather than just watched. Still, we couldn't find anything that was remotely related to us. Except for the guy who likes to study birds. We could relate to that, sort of.

"Well, I don't know," I said when the movie ended again, "I don't think there's anything on the movie itself that's supposed to help us."

"There _must_ be something to this," said Iggy, "There has to be a reason why that guy gave it to us."

We weren't getting any closer to figuring this out and it was really frustrating me. We had all the pieces to the puzzle, but there was no way to connect them. All this stress made me want to scream.

"It has to be right in front of us," I said, "we just can't see it."

"I can't think of anything," said Nudge.

"Neither can I," said Gazzy.

"Well, maybe you've had enough thinking for today," said Dr. Martinez, "You look worn out. Maybe you should go to bed. We've still got those rooms set up for you."

"I think I'm gonna take you up on that offer Doc," said Iggy, "I'm getting tired."

"Me too," said Nudge, afterwards yawning.

"I guess I'll go too," said Gazzy, "Good night." They all headed upstairs into their rooms.

"What about you Max?" asked Dr. Martinez.

"I don't think I can sleep," I said, "I've got way too much on my mind to be able to sleep."

"Well, whenever you feel like it. I'm going to be down in my office. If you need anything, just let me know, or ask Ella." She got up and headed out of the room.

"Thanks, Dr. Martinez." Oh man. I had been saying that a lot. She was just so perfect and always willing to help us. And she was one of the good guys. It was just so great.

"Your mom is so great Ella," I said, "You are so lucky to have her."

"I know. I'm really glad she's my mom. And I'm really glad to have you for a friend."

"I'm really glad you're my friend too."

"So, what about this friend of yours who you're looking for? Fang, I think his name was. Have you found any sign of him?"

I shook my head. Then I realized that I had tears coming from my eyes. All the frustrations of the day must have been finding a way out.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset."

"No, it's not your fault. I'm just… feeling really bad."

"There was something I wanted to ask you the last time you two were here, but I never really got the chance. Are you guys, you know, more than friends?"

The question kind of startled me. I looked at her like she had just caught me with my pants down.

"I'm sorry," Ella said again, "I'm asking you a bunch of really dumb questions. I'm sorry."

"Its okay, Ella," I said, "I get it a lot from the flock. But yeah, we are more than friends."

"Do you love him?"

The question really got to me. Do I love Fang? For the strangest reason, the conversation I had with Asch the other day came into my mind. How he said he loved me but he would accept me choosing Fang over him. How he said he could tell Fang loved me. I did love Asch, but like he was my brother. Fang was always there for me. But Asch was too. Or he would have been if I hadn't been kidnapped.

Then again, Fang always drove me nuts with his blank expressions and refusal to speak more than three words a day. And yet, that just made him all the more attractive. He was a mystery I always wanted to solve. And he was always concerned about me.

And then there was Asch who was willing to kill me back in Roland City. But he was doing it for the greater good, stopping Itex. And it wasn't like he wanted to do it. That should show how brave he is. And he could be really sweet too. But he just gets so reckless, it scares me.

I couldn't believe I was having this debate with myself. The answer was obvious. Even Asch told me what it was. And it would have been who I'd choose anyway, if it came down to it.

"Yeah, I do love Fang," I finally said.

"That is so sweet," said Ella, "I really hope you find him."

"Me too, Ella. Me too." Then I did the one thing I absolutely hate doing. I hunched over and started crying.

* * *

Just a little note, for all you Twilight fans out there. It kept popping up on this section so much, I decided to look it up and now I'm hooked. So thanks a lot all you Twilight fans. I hate you. lol No, I don't. It's a good book. Can't wait to read New Moon and Eclipse. (I feel like I'm cheating on Max with Bella)

Anyway, enough of my rants. As always, keep review'n. Thank you


	25. Things to Think in a Tank

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Oh, my God. These disclaimers are so painful to write.

* * *

Asch continued to float in the darkness, unfeeling. He kept singing songs to keep himself occupied, so he wouldn't descend into madness. He didn't know how many he had sung, or how long he had been singing. As soon as he finished one, he went right into the next one that he thought of.

At one point, he fell asleep, or at least he thought he fell asleep. He felt himself go into an even more relaxed state and become less aware of what little surroundings he had. His mind seemed to switch gears from singing to himself… to Max.

He "dreamed" of Max. He went through memories of her like a photo album. He could see her smile. He remembered the times they spent together in ShawCorp. How they were inseparable as best friends, a regular dynamic duo. He kept seeing her smile. It was so warm and comforting to him. For years, all he had were his memories of her. And then he finally found her, and she hadn't changed one bit.

And yet she changed so much.

She had grown up a lot. She learned some colorful new words. She became a great leader. And she fell in love, with someone else.

Max and Fang definitely made a good couple, but did that mean he had to be happy with it?

He was happy for them, and yet he wasn't happy.

Max deserved what was best, and if Fang was best for her, then so be it. But he still wished he could be that person. But did that mean he couldn't love her anymore?

No, that couldn't be true. He loved Max, and he always would. But if that was Max's choice, then no matter how it hurt him, he would accept it. Fang may have been better for her than he was anyway.

He still couldn't tell if he was asleep or awake. The time he was spending in the isolation tank was distorting his sense of reality.

He absolutely hated being in this place. The vast darkness was very uncomfortable. All of this nothingness, and yet he knew he was in a space that barely encompassed ten square feet.

Humoring himself with irony didn't help one bit.

He couldn't deny it to himself any longer. He was scared of this place. The darkness and nothingness around him made him very nervous. Being alone in this place made him so tense, knowing that there was nothing around him for an infinite amount of space.

He kept trying to make fire, to bring light to the dark abyss. But it was no use. Something in this place just wouldn't let him do so.

A little bit later, a bright light broke through, hurting his eyes again. Hands came from the light and grabbed onto him, once again feeling like it was Edward Scissorhands pulling him out.

Once again, he was dragged through the hallway and brought into the same room as before. After a few minutes, the feeling finally returned to his body. His back was still soaked from floating in the liquid. The only thing he was wearing was his tattoo and his boxers. He looked up to see the gun device pointed at him high on the wall.

The door opened and Jeb walked in. He nonchalantly came in and sat down across the table from me.

"Hello again Asch," he said.

"What do you want now?" asked Asch.

"We need a little bit more information out of you. Do you think you can give it to us without any problems or do you need to be injected with another dose of truth serum?"

Asch looked at Jeb for a moment. He saw him reach into his pocket, like he had the dart gun in it. He thought about telling him to kiss his ass, but then he thought that maybe he could get away with lying to them.

"What do you want to know?" Asch asked him.

"Yesterday I asked you your real name and Lily's real name. I need to know the members of your flock's real names?"

"Why do you need to know that?"

Jeb was silent for a minute. Then he said, "What the heck? You're going to be… exterminated soon anyway. We have a lot of ShawCorp's data ever since that raid five years ago. We just haven't been able to access certain parts of it. All of your individual data is a major aspect of it. We found that your real names are the passwords to access it. We want to use it for our next batch of experiments. To see how ShawCorp succeeded where we… failed."

"I get it. Cannibalizing your enemy."

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

Asch let out a little chuckle, amazed at what lows these guys were sinking to.

"Where do you want to start?"

Jeb pulled out his pad and paper and got ready to write, "Sebastian," he said.

"His name was Samuel Pace."

"Calypso?"

"Victoria Harrison."

"Conrad?"

"Connor Harrison."

"And Max?

"You want to know Maximum Ride's real name?"

"Yes."

Asch let out a sigh, "Evelyn Dichristafaro."

"How do you spell that?"

"F-U-C-K-Y-O-U."

Jeb began writing when he realized what he was doing and looked up to Asch with an annoyed look on his face.

Asch smiled and laughed, "Took you a second to figure it out, huh?"

Jeb pulled out the dart gun and pointed it to Asch.

"All right, all right, all right," said Asch, "You want the truth? I actually don't know her real name. I used to know it, but now I don't. So I really can't help you."

Jeb continued his annoyed look, but he put down the gun. "Very well. I just have one more question for you. And then, I think that will be it for you."

"And what is that question?"

"Do you know… where my son's body is?"

"Huh?"

"Where is my son's body? I'd like to… give him a proper burial."

"So, there is a bit of human in you after all. A little bit, but it's there."

"Just tell me so I can move on with my life!" Jeb yelled out.

"Despite that outburst, I don't know where your son's body is. My best guess is that he's somewhere in the northwest. Maybe Montana or Idaho, or maybe Washington. I'm not sure."

Jeb was silent, as if he was contemplating what Asch was saying, "Very well," he said, "Well, thank you for your time Asch. As unpleasant and sickening as it was, it has been quite useful."

"I'm glad I could help you," Asch said sarcastically.

Jeb suddenly signaled for somebody to come in. The door opened and two men came into the room. Asch saw Jeb pull out the gun and load something in it. Before he could react, Jeb fired the gun and the needle stuck into Asch's neck.

"Just a little tranquilizer," he said, "before we put you back in the tank."

Asch started to struggle, "No you won't!" But the tranquilizer was quickly taking effect. Asch's head was starting to feel heavy.

"The next time that tank opens, it will be time for your extermination."

Asch managed to throw off the two men who had a hold of him. He lunged at Jeb and grabbed him by his shirt collar and they both fell to the floor. Asch managed to get in two punches to Jeb's face before the two men grabbed a hold of him again.

Asch started to fade. His energy was quickly diminishing. The excitement of his attacking Jeb made his blood flow quicker, the tranquilizer acting faster.

The two guards dragged him back into the isolation tank. Asch felt the cool liquid at his back yet again, and then the tank door closed.

Asch was lost again in the darkness, the feeling in his body quickly leaving him. The tranquilizer was taking full effect and he was on the brink of sleep.

The last thing he thought of, before he slipped into unconsciousness, was that he was going to die. The next time he saw that piercing light, he was going to die.

* * *

Please R&R. I really want to know what you think. 


	26. New Strategy

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Are these disclaimers hypnotizing, mesmerizing, or boring?

* * *

The next morning, I woke up feeling restless. For a minute, I thought that I was still at the Counter-Breed home, and everything was all right. But as I slowly lifted my head from the pillow, I realized that the room I was in was in was different from the guest room. It was my own small little room. And then I suddenly remembered everything that happened yesterday.

I was in one of Dr. Martinez's rooms. She had a large house and there were enough bedrooms for all of us.

I couldn't really sleep that much. As tired as I was, I just couldn't fall asleep. All the events of yesterday just kept replaying in my mind. And then there was the fact that I missed Fang. I really, really wanted him here, right now. I needed him to tell me that it was going to be all right, that he would be there beside me. But I was alone.

I got out of bed and meandered my way through the house. I was just not 100, and it takes a lot to make me feel that way. I found the stairs and went down them.

The others were in the dining room. I could smell something cooking in the kitchen. Dr. Martinez must have been making breakfast.

I sat down with the others at the table and put my head in my hands.

"Rough night?" asked Gazzy.

"Yeah," I said.

"We couldn't really sleep either," said Iggy, "Way too much on our minds."

"This is way too much."

"I know we'll figure something out Max," said Nudge, "We've been in tough spots before, and we'll get out of this one. I know we can. I know that you'll lead us out."

"Yeah, but we've never been in this tough a spot before. I don't have my Voice to tell me what to do anymore…" I couldn't believe I was missing my Voice "… Fang is still gone, Asch, the only person who's been able to help us understand all of this, is gone. Guys, we're on our own."

"But we can do it," said Iggy, "Any statistic in the world would say that we should be dead right now. But we're alive. Every time it looked like we were gonna die, we defied the odds and survived. Now I know it looks bad Max, but we can do it. We're gonna find Fang, we're gonna find Asch, we're gonna rescue Angel and Lily, and we're going to stop Itex."

I couldn't believe it. My flock was encouraging me, giving me hope. Usually it was me doing it; the hope was false more than once. I don't know if there's was, but they were still giving it to me, and it was working.

"Thanks guys," I said, "that's actually helping me feel better."

"Okay," said Gazzy, "now that we've had our encouraging, heartfelt moment, can we eat?"

We all couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

After a moment, Dr. Martinez walked into the room with a huge plate of pancakes and a pot full of corned beef hash. "Okay, dig in, everyone." She sat down and we really did dig in.

We all managed to share some small talk about what our next move was going to be.

"Well, I did some thinking about it," I said, "And I think we're supposed to go to that manor in the photo."

"What makes you think that?" asked Ella.

"I don't know, but there must be something there for someone to give us a photo of it. I can't help but think that that guy wants us to go there."

"But when we were there before," said Nudge, "we didn't see anything that stood out for us, except that note."

"True, but we weren't exactly looking for anything there, except for the exit."

"So if we go back there," said Gazzy, "you think we'll find something we need, or need to know."

"It's better than doing nothing, and I think it's our best bet."

"It seems to make sense," said Iggy, "I say we go for it."

"Yeah, let's do it," said Nudge.

"You guys are going to break our hearts if you keep doing this," said Dr. Martinez with a smile on her face, "You keep coming here, you stay for a _tiny_ bit and tell us all of this amazing stuff, and then you just up and leave. I don't know if I can take this."

"After we stop Itex," I said, "I think we'd like to stay here for a lot longer."

"And we'd really like you to stay here a lot longer," said Ella.

"I promise, we will. And we'll have Fang and Angel, and Asch and Lily too. If you don't mind them staying here, that is. I hate to keep bringing more children on you Dr. Martinez."

She raised her hand to stop me. "I would love to have them stay here Max. I'll have to make some more room, but I think we can manage. Besides, all the more company for Ella."

"Mom," said Ella, "don't make me sound like I'm pitiful."

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but I needed a scapegoat for an excuse for Max to bring more company."

"Mom!"

We all began laughing. This was a lot better compared to the funk that we were all in earlier.

After we ate, we all showered and got dressed. The flock and I had to put on our dirty clothes from yesterday. Iggy was right before, how we were going straight back to the old days.

About an hour later, we were ready to leave for Montana. We all were outside saying our goodbyes. Dr. Martinez and Ella each gave us about thirty hugs.

"Well, good luck," said Dr. Martinez, "we'll be praying for you."

"Th-thanks," I said, "We'll be back, with the others."

"Bye, Max," said Ella, "Be safe."

"We will, goodbye."

We all got ready to take off, or at least I made the others look like they were about to take off. As soon as Dr. Martinez closed the door, I straightened out and yelled towards the bushes not too far away from the house.

Just then, about twenty Erasers came out of the bushes. They had been sitting there, waiting ever since we came outside to leave.

"Very good Max," said one of the Erasers.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"What else?" said the same Eraser. I assumed he was leading this pack. "We're here for you. Now are you going to surrender quietly or do we have to take you by force?"

"You must be new, otherwise, you'd know that we're not just gonna give up."

"Wait a minute," said Iggy, "How'd you find us? We know for sure Itex had no idea about this place."

"That's true," said the lead Eraser, "we didn't know until very recently. You're friend Asch told us."

"Asch?!" we all cried.

"Yeah, he can be quite the talker given the proper… applications."

"What do you mean? What did you do to him?"

"Not much. A couple of segments in an isolation tank and some truth serum would make anybody do anything we want."

They put Asch in the isolation tank. I couldn't believe that those bastards were still using such an inhumane device. Thinking about it put a shiver down my body. I remembered how I was put in that thing. The emptiness and numbness I felt was really scary. At one point when I was in it, I even thought I was dead. And now that was happening to Asch.

"You bastards!" I yelled, "How can you do such a thing?!"

"Quite easily. Now, enough chatter. Are you coming with us or not?"

"Hell no."

And with that the four of us took on the group of twenty Erasers. Overall, they weren't bad odds for us. But if we had, say, two more fighters with us, it might have gone smoother.

All I could think of was just tearing through any and all Erasers that were in my way. I had a lot of frustration that I had built up in the last couple of days that I was glad to finally alleviate. All my rage was giving me the worst case of tunnel vision.

I just know that not one Eraser managed to touch me. I was cracking their skulls and punching into ribs and breaking arms and necks. I didn't really keep track of how the others were handling themselves, but I was sure that they would be fine.

After the battle, there were dead Erasers all over the ground of Dr. Martinez's yard. We all gathered together to make sure that we were all right. Everyone had a couple of scratches and one or two bruises, but overall, we were all right.

Dr. Martinez came out of the door and came running towards us. "Are you all right?" she cried.

"We're fine," I said, "Itex knows about this place now. We have to leave for Montana now. And you and Ella should go and hide somewhere. Or, just don't come out of the house. Do you have a panic room?"

"Don't worry, we'll be safe. You guys just hurry."

"Okay, guys, U and A."

We all spread our wings and took to the air. This was just great. Itex had Angel, Lily, and Asch. And they were using Asch to get information. And God knew he knew everything there was to know.

We had to hurry. Time was running out. And Itex was getting closer and closer to accomplishing their goal.

* * *

R&R R&R R&R R&R R&R 


	27. Dying to Live

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Are these disclaimers scaring away my reviewers?

* * *

Asch floated in the darkness, running through the soundtrack of his mind. It was harder to concentrate on what he was singing with the thought that he was going to be killed.

He didn't want to die, not yet. He wasn't ready. There were still things he had to do. He had to save Angel and Lily. He had to stop Itex once and for all. He had to find a way to change Fang back. And he had a promise to Max to keep. His promise to see the world with her and the flock.

But first thing's first. He had to find a way out of here. But that was impossible. His body was completely numb. He couldn't use his pyrokinesis. It just seemed completely hopeless.

For what seemed like days, Asch lay in the darkness, contemplating how to get out but coming up with nothing.

Instinctively, he started praying. He prayed to God for some sort of answer. For some way to get out. Surely He wouldn't let him die right here, right now, at the hands of people trying to be Him.

Suddenly, the piercing light came back. But rather than encompassing his entire vision, it only took up a partial section of it. And it was accompanied by a sound that was like an explosion. It was followed by more explosions and more pieces of the light coming into view.

Something came out and grabbed Asch by the arm and pulled him out of the tank. He fell on the floor, but he wasn't dragged anywhere. He was allowed to lay on the floor on his knees and hands and get his feeling back.

His sight returned and he found broken glass from the isolation tank spread around. The feeling returned to his body and he flapped his wings a few times to get the blood flowing back into them.

A towel dropped to the floor next to his right hand. "Dry that gunk off your back," said a voice from above him.

Asch looked up to see someone was standing right above him. At first he thought it was Max, but there was something different about her. Then he realized who it was that was standing over him. It was Max II.

"You're… you're Max II," he said, gaining his strength back, "What are you doing?"

"Just dry off and get dressed," said Max II, "I got your clothes right here." She put them on the floor next to Asch.

Asch took the towel and started drying off the parts of him that were wet from the liquid he was floating in.

"What are you doing?" he asked, "Why did you just break me out of there?"

Max II let out a frustrated sigh. "Look," she said, "I'm set to be exterminated too. I figured I'd have a better chance of escaping with some help."

"Why does Jeb want to get rid of you?"

"I guess he's just sick of me. He used me for what he needed and now he's done."

"I don't suppose you disobeying him and going after Max had anything to do with it. Generally, people get terminated for not following orders.

"Shut up and get dressed. They don't know I've escaped yet, and it can't be long until they do."

Asch quickly got on his socks, blue jeans, black t-shirt, and boots.

They left the room where they walked past two security guards who were down on the ground unconscious. It was pretty obvious what had taken place.

Asch and Max II moved quickly and quietly through the halls of the building. Max II knew the building, and she slowly led Asch through it, avoiding security whenever it showed up.

Asch heard Max II muttering to herself about something.

"What are you saying?" he asked.

"I was saying I can't believe this is all happening because of a dumb movie."

"What do you mean?"

"Roland ter Borcht, the guy who started all of this, saw some movie called _Birdman of Alcatraz_ when he was younger. It inspired him to start studying birds, and he eventually worked his way into wanting to create bird people. Jeb told me all about it."

"It's amazing what people are inspired by and how they interpret it."

An alarm suddenly sounded and red lights started to flash.

"Damn it," said Max II, "they found out I'm gone. We gotta get moving."

Their sneaking around quickly turned to running for their lives. Asch would have used his hyper-speed, but he didn't know his way through the building.

A group of six security guards then rounded a corner and came in front of them with guns drawn.

"You there, freeze!" yelled one of the guards.

"Sorry," said Max II, "that's not happening." She and Asch then charged them.

"Open fire!" screamed the guard. But before they could get off a shot, Asch and Max II were in their faces. They made quick work of them, giving swift kicks and punches to heads and stomachs. They all went down easily. They clearly weren't Erasers. But there had to be some on their way.

Asch and Max II continued running through the halls, with Max II leading.

Suddenly a group of Erasers started chasing after them. When they saw them coming, Max II got ready to fight them but Asch had other plans. He held his hands out as the Erasers continued to get closer. In a flash they all burst into flames. They all started screaming and running around in random directions.

More Erasers came from another direction. Asch heard them coming and turned around. He blasted a stream of fire at them, catching each one of them and setting them on fire. They also ran away.

"Wow," said Max II, "you are useful."

"How far to the exit?" asked Asch.

"Not too far."

"Then let's keep going."

They continued running, adrenaline rushing through them. They made it further through the building when more guards and Erasers came at every angle. Asch managed to land lethal punches and kicks with his speed while Max II was able to use her strength to snap all of her opponent's necks.

As Asch fought, something caught the corner of his eye. He was near a door with a window in it. In the room behind it, he managed to see Lily's face.

"Lily!" he cried. He finished off two more Erasers and then went into the room.

Lily had been strapped to some sort of chair. There were several plugs that had been placed on her head that had wires coming out of them and attached to a machine.

"Lily," he said, "It's me. It's Asch. I'm here."

"Asch," said Lily, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm getting you out of here." Asch reached out to start pulling the things off Lily's head.

"No, don't."

Asch stopped, "Why not?"

"They're monitoring everything that goes on in this room. If these things get taken off, they'll kill Angel. If I don't do what they tell me, they'll kill her. They're using me so I can transport their Erasers through my rifts."

"What am I supposed to do, then? I gotta get you outta here."

"I've managed to keep one rift open somewhere they haven't been able to detect. It's at the manor. It'll take you right back here. Go find Max and the others and bring them over here. I sent them through a rift that brought them to Dr. Martinez's house."

"How'd you do that if they're monitoring your every move?"

"They gave me a… warning. But if they find the rift I'm keeping open, they'll kill Angel."

"Okay, I'll go get the flock. I'm gonna come back for you. I promise." He held her hand for a second to reassure her. He let go and was about to head back into the hall.

"Asch, wait," she said.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking back to her.

"Roland ter Borcht is here. He broke in somehow and the bad guys are looking for him too."

"Okay Lily, thanks. I'm gonna get you out of here, no matter what." He went to leave again when Lily spoke up again.

"I love you Daddy."

Asch looked back to her one more time, "I love you too baby," he said.

It pained Asch to have to leave Lily, but she was right. When Asch came back in the hallway, he met up with Max II who had finished off the rest of the Erasers. "Where'd you go?" she asked, slightly irritated.

"I found Lily," he said, "but I can't get her out of here right now. I have to go get Max and the others."

"How about we just concentrate on getting out of here first? We're almost out of here."

The two of them continued running when they came to a door. "This is it," said Max II.

They both came through the door and were met with a startling sight. There was a huge field surrounded by fence. Inside the field were hundreds of Erasers who had just turned their attention to Max II and Asch.

"Oh, my," said Asch.

"This isn't good," said Max II.

Behind them another group of Erasers started coming towards them.

"Well, lookie what we got here," said an Eraser from the outside, "Two trapped little rats."

Asch looked around. Flying away would have been pointless because this batch of Erasers could fly as well.

"Who's the rat?!" yelled Max II. She charged the Eraser who said that and landed a fist right in its mouth. The others Erasers started to attack, baring their teeth in anger.

Adrenaline, anger, and fury was surging its way through Asch. He was desperate to take out his frustration from not being able to help Lily and being cooped up in the isolation tank. All these Erasers were just targets to him.

He formed fire rings around his wrist and started hurling them at all the charging Erasers in front of him. He kept throwing and retracting them, slicing at limbs and leaving charred gashes in every Eraser in their path.

Asch slowly worked his way through the field as he threw the rings. He soon ended up surrounded by Erasers, separated from Max II. He let the rings fade away. He started to spin around with his arms spread out. A large ring of fire blasted out from Asch and took out the first row of surrounding Erasers. The rest backed off a bit, now being careful about how to attack.

But Asch wasn't being careful anymore. He wasn't even Asch anymore. He was a killing machine. "You picked the wrong day to come after me!" he screamed. He charged through the crowd of Erasers using his speed, a trail of fire blazing from his hands, catching a bunch of Erasers.

He then took to the air and quickly came back down, slamming his fists to the ground, an explosion of fire rushing away from him, incinerating any Erasers within a twenty foot radius.

More Erasers began to swarm him. "I'm going to take you ALL OUT!" cried Asch. He brought out his fire rings and began slashing at any approaching Eraser, screaming as he did. After taking out twenty more Erasers, he stopped throwing the rings created four fire balls that formed on the ground around him about ten feet away from him. They all exploded with great force and blew away an even larger group of Erasers.

Asch saw Max II holding her own; a lot of bodies were around her. But a bunch were about to swarm her.

Asch blasted towards them, leaving a trail of fire. "Get out of the way!" he yelled.

Max II saw him coming and jumped out of the way just in time. Asch charged through the crowd, setting them on fire. They screamed as they burned.

Max II landed next to Asch and they stood back to back. Asch had fire coming out of his hands, ready for the next Erasers coming. They were surrounded by Erasers, but they stayed about ten feet away.

"You know," said Max II, slightly short of breath, "I think I liked it better when they were on my side."

"Feeling a little regret, are we?" said Asch.

After a short moment, she responded, "Nah, no way. I can handle these punks."

"Good to know."

The Erasers started to charge them. Asch shot a stream of fire at them, warding off the ones coming for him while Max II used her strength and agility to out-maneuver them and take them down.

Asch continued to use his speed and fire, soon turning the field into an ash-covered war zone. Max II brought down almost every one of her attackers, taking little damage.

Asch took down the final Eraser, breathing heavily. He was virtually untouched from the battle. "All right, let's go," he said.

Suddenly, a loud bang sounded out.

Asch looked over to Max II. She had her hand to her shoulder. She looked up at Asch and then moved her hand. A dark, red circle was growing from just below her shoulder.

She looked over to Asch with a look Asch recognized. It was realization that she was about to die. She started to let out a scream of anger, but several more bangs ran out and Max II's body jerked with each one. She fell to the ground with more red spots on her back.

Asch looked over to where the shots came from and saw Jeb with a gun. "You just don't get it, do you?" he said, "You're never going to win."

Asch ran quickly towards Jeb and jumped in the air in front of him. "She didn't deserve that!" he yelled, and delivered a huge kick to his head, cracking it. Jeb fell down hard.

As Asch landed, he heard Jeb say something else. He bent down to him.

"…never going to win…never going to win…never going to win…"

A couple of sparks came from Jeb and then his body twitched a couple times, and then he was silent. It was another Jeb robot.

"Damn it!" he shouted.

He walked over to Max II's body and turned her right side up. He placed her hands on her chest. "Thank you, Max. I'm sorry I can't properly bury you now."

He jumped in the air and took off. At 200 miles per hour, he could probably reach Arizona in about seven minutes.


	28. Limitations

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. Anyone up for a night flight?

* * *

Asch made it to the Martinez house. Immediately, he became alarmed when he saw the yard littered with unconscious or dead Erasers.

"Dr. Martinez!" called Asch. There was no answer. Asch was really concerned now.

"Dr. Martinez!" he called again. Still no answer.

He ran to the door but found it was locked. He banged on the door calling for Dr. Martinez. There was still no answer.

He was really getting scared now. He was starting to fear the worst. Without really thinking, he broke down the door with ease. "Dr. Martinez, where are you? Are you home?!"

Dr. Martinez came out from around a corner with a metal poker in her hands, ready to swing away. "What do you want?" she said.

"Whoa, hang on Dr. M," said Asch, "It's me, it's Asch."

Dr. Martinez stared at Asch for a moment. Ella came around the corner and looked at Asch. "It's okay Mom," she said, "It's Max's friend Asch. He's the one who gave us the note to give to Max."

After another moment, Dr. Martinez put down the poker. "Oh, it is you," she said, "I didn't recognize you."

"Are you two all right?" asked Asch, "I saw the mess outside. Did Max and the others do that?"

"Yeah, just as they were leaving, those Erasers came out to attack them. Max told us to find a way to be safe, so me and Ella have been hiding out in a panic room I had built a couple years ago."

"Leaving? Where're they going?"

"They said they were going to Montana. Somebody gave them some kind of clue that Max thinks means they were supposed to go there. I think she said it some manor where they were supposed to go to."

"Fang," Asch muttered to himself.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Ella.

"I have to go after Max. She's heading someplace very dangerous and she's going to need my help. Thanks for telling me where she is. You two stay safe in that panic room. Don't open the door for anybody unless it's me or Max."

"All right," said Dr. Martinez.

Asch started to walk out the door, but then something was wrong. All of a sudden, his head felt like a lead weight. Then he couldn't feel his legs, and he collapsed on the floor.

And then there was darkness.

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We had just crossed the border into Montana. I still had my sense of direction, so I still remembered which way to get to the manor.

Iggy flew up next to me. "So, what do you think happened to Fang?"

The thought about Fang stabbed into my mind like a knife. There was so much that was going on, I didn't think of what might have happened to him.

"I don't know," I said, "but I really hope he's all right."

"You really miss him, don't you?"

I couldn't believe I said the next words that passed through my lips. "More than you could know."

"Do you think Asch knows what happened to Fang? Anne Walker made it sound like that?"

"I don't know. I mean, why would he lie to us about Fang when he's been clean with us about everything else? It just… it just doesn't make sense."

"Well, I have a theory about that."

"What?"

"Umm… you may not like it. It's probably not true but I think we should consider it a possibility."

"What is it?"

"Maybe he wasn't telling you about Fang because… he doesn't want you and Fang to be… together."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I noticed that Nudge and Gazzy were coming closer to listen to Iggy's theory.

"He could be jealous of you and Fang. Maybe he didn't tell us because he may like you the way you and Fang like each other."

I suddenly remembered my conversation with Asch a couple days ago on the roof. It seemed like ages ago. When he told me he loved me, but he accepted me and Fang.

"No, no," I said, "That doesn't sound like Asch. We've talked to each other about this before. He wouldn't do something like that."

"Well," said Gazzy, "I may say I don't want chocolate so I don't blow you guys away. It doesn't mean I don't like chocolate."

"No, guys, you don't know what you're saying. Asch is not like that. If he does know where Fang is, I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for not telling us. He wouldn't do anything like that. There is a reason!"

I could feel myself getting hysterical. I didn't mean to. It was just that the thought of Asch lying to me was upsetting.

"Calm down Max," said Iggy, "you're probably right. And for all we know, Anne might have been lying to try and confuse us. I'm just saying, we shouldn't overlook any possibilities."

After a few seconds, I said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but Asch wouldn't do that."

"Okay, Max, I was just saying."

A few minutes later, I could see the manor down below and we started to make our decent. We landed in front of the door of the manor.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" asked Nudge.

"Anything out of the ordinary," I said, "Anything that stands out that we may not have noticed the last time we were here."

"Oh, that should narrow it down," said Iggy, "We only come across things out of the ordinary everyday."

"Too bad you'll never get the chance," said a voice that came from behind us.

We all looked behind us. There were dozens of Erasers standing behind us. Behind them was a bunch of Lily's rifts. Jeb must have sent them to either to destroy the manor or destroy us. Or it could have been both. Who knew how he operated?

The Erasers started to come after us. I started taking them down with hard kicks and punches. Iggy managed to grab some and started breaking limbs like nobody's business. Nudge and Gazzy were able to make quick movements to dodge them. I never liked killing my enemies, but this was getting serious. The Erasers weren't just determined to kill us, they were bent on it. We had no choice now.

After a lot of blood and sweat, we were able to take out all of the Erasers. But then, five rifts opened up, and dozens more Erasers came running out of them. They immediately came after us.

This wave was a lot worse. We took a lot more hits. Iggy got a three big slashes across his face. I took a punch in my stomach that knocked the wind right out of me. But they still couldn't stand up to us because we still managed to kick their butts.

We were getting worn out. I couldn't take much more.

But sure enough, more rifts opened up and more Erasers came running out. We needed help, big time.

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Asch woke up feeling like he'd been hit by a train. As he opened his eyes, he found that he was lying on a couch in a house. At first he was about to panic because he didn't know where he was. But then he remembered he had come to Dr. Martinez's house and talked to them, and then just passed out.

"Mom," said Ella, who was standing by the couch, "he's waking up."

Dr. Martinez walked into the room with a glass in her hand. It had something in it with ice floating in it.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"All right, I guess," said Asch, "What happened?"

"You were about to leave when you just passed out on the floor. Here drink this." She handed Asch the glass. He took a drink of the cold liquid. It was water.

"Have you been… expending a lot of energy lately?" Dr. Martinez asked.

Asch thought for a few seconds. It suddenly made perfect sense to him. All the fighting he did in the Facility and then the hyper-fast trip to the house. It took way more out of him than his body could take. He always forgot that his super-speed wasn't meant for long distance trips, only for fighting.

"Yeah, I have. This has happened to me before, but it was never this bad. I was in this major fight that I went really crazy with, and then I used my speed to get myself here, which I shouldn't have done. But I was in a hurry."

"Well, there you go," said Dr. Martinez, "Don't try to do that anymore. Or you might fall down and never get up."

Asch took another gulp of the water. It really helped. When he used his fire a little too much at a time, his body tended to overheat sometimes. But because of his pyrokinesis, he could never get heat exhaustion or heat stroke. "I'll keep that in mind Doc."

"So is Max really in danger?" asked Ella.

"Yeah, and she needs my help. I gotta get over there now." Asch started to get up, but Dr. Martinez came over and stopped him.

"No, you should stay here and rest a little more," she said, "You were only out for about a half-an-hour. No way have you gotten your energy back fully yet."

Asch lay down for a few minutes longer and finished his water. But he couldn't fight it anymore. Dr. Martinez was out of the room and Ella was on the other side of the room.

He used his speed to get off the couch and out of the house. Ella didn't even realize he was gone until it was too late.

Asch took to the air. He knew he shouldn't have, but he used his hyper-speed to get to Montana. He had to get to Max before it was too late.

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Please please please review. 


	29. A Way In

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Mmmm… cookies.

* * *

We were getting tired. We couldn't take much more of this fighting. Every Eraser we killed, another took its place. Wave after wave of them just kept coming through Lily's rifts.

I gave an elbow to an Eraser in the neck and then I clapped my hands on his skull. As he went down, two Erasers knocked me down from behind. I quickly got up and took them down with some swift kicks and punches.

I backed from some other Erasers that were slowly closing in on me. I found that Nudge, Iggy, and Gasman huddled against each other back to back. I backed up to them and completed the little circle. They were all out of breath, as was I.

After a few seconds, we collapsed from our exhaustion. We were all in a sitting position with our backs still against each other. I couldn't believe it. They had finally gotten us. Jeb found a way to get enough Erasers to take us out.

They all circled us, smiling, knowing they had won.

One of them jumped up towards us, ready to make the kill. I put my arms up in front of me to try and fend it off. I even closed my eyes, knowing it was hopeless.

But the Eraser never came for me. Instead, I heard a loud scream that quickly faded. Then I heard other sounds of grunts and groans like the Erasers were being beaten up. I moved my arm and opened my eyes. What I saw shocked me.

Someone, or something, moving at an incredibly fast speed was taking out all of the Erasers that were in the area.

Then I realized who it was that was doing this. There was only one person I knew who could move that fast. It was Asch. He was back.

I could barely keep up with him. The only way I was able to follow him was to watch the Erasers getting taken down. And they were going down fast.

After the last one went down and no more rifts opened, Asch stopped and stood in the yard, surrounded by fallen Erasers that were unconscious, dying, or dead.

We all got up and I ran to him. When I reached him, I gave him a huge hug. "Asch, you're all right."

He hugged me back. "Maxie," was all he managed to say. Then he slowly got down on the ground and sat. His breathing was heavy and uneven. Something wasn't right.

"Asch, are you all right?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "I just… I just need to rest for a bit. I… used too much energy at once. I hyper-flew all the way here, which I shouldn't have done, and then taking on all those guys. It takes a lot out of me."

"Well, we're glad you came. We would have been dead for sure if you didn't show up."

Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy came over to us. "Hey, guys," said Asch. "You all right?"

"Yeah, we're okay," said Iggy, "What about you? What happened to you? Where'd you go?"

"I was at the Facility. They captured me and kept me in an isolation tank."

I shuddered when he said that. I remembered being kept in one of those by Jeb. The feeling of having no feeling, thinking that I was dead. I absolutely hated it. I couldn't believe that they subjected him to that.

Asch continued. "Afterwards, they injected me with a truth serum and I guess I talked about you guys, what you've been doing, where you've been going. I guess that's why you've been attacked by Erasers. Then, later, I got some help."

"Help?" I asked.

"Yeah, of all people, Max II helped break me out."

"Max II helped you get out?" asked Nudge.

"Yeah, she was going to be exterminated too, so she broke me out and we escaped. A bunch of Erasers got in our way of course, but we took them all out. And then…"

"What?" I asked. I had an idea of what he was about to say, but I wanted to be sure.

"Then another one of those Jeb robots showed up and shot her. She's dead."

"Oh my God," said Iggy.

"I know. The one time she does something good and she dies because of it. Talk about irony."

"Oh, man," I said. Max II was gone now. And she helped Asch. Max II was really just another puppet of Itex. She wasn't really bad; she was just looking for a place in the world. And now they killed her. Treating people like that, using them for their own ends and then just cutting them off. Itex was going to pay.

"Well, we shouldn't let her sacrifice go in vain," said Asch, "she died helping me get away. We have to see this through. The world's depending on us."

"And they don't even know it," said Nudge.

Asch stood up. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good now," he said, "I just needed to rest for a few minutes."

"So what else happened when you were at the Facility?" asked Gazzy.

"Well, during my escape I found Lily, but I couldn't save her at the time. I didn't see Angel though. Sorry guys. Itex has been using her to get her Erasers from place to place. She also told me you brought her to the Martinez's. I went there and talked to them. They told me you were coming here. Then I came here and found you. Which brings me to a question: Why are you here?"

"Well," said Iggy, "when we were in that rift that Lily sent us through, this guy was there and gave us some things. One of them was a photo of this manor. We figured the guy was telling us he wanted us to come here."

"Who was he?"

"Max has a theory about that. She thinks it might have been Fang."

"It was just a feeling I had," I said. Asch's expression changed a little bit, like he was surprised to hear Fang's name, but then he went back to the way he was.

"Well," he said, "If that's what you think, you're probably right."

"You meant it was Fang?"

"If that's what you think. I mean, you are right a lot."

"Asch, there's something I need to ask you. Back in San Francisco, when Anne Walker said I should ask you about Fang, what did she mean?"

Asch hesitated for a few seconds. I didn't know how to feel about it, excited or worried. Then he said, "I don't know Maxie. It's not for me to say."

"Asch, if you know something, please tell me." He seemed to be frustrated about this. Now I was getting more worried.

"I'm sorry Max. I can't break my promise."

"WHAT?! You made a promise to Fang?! Then he's okay! I can see him again!"

During my hysterical tirade of joy, the others jumped in the air with big smiles. Meanwhile, Asch's eyes widened and then he let out a small gasp before covering his mouth.

He uncovered his mouth and then said, "Awwwwww man. Fang is gonna friggin' kill me now."

"Asch?" asked Nudge, "Was it Fang who gave us that stuff? Did you know where Fang was this whole time?"

"Oh, come on, guys. I can't."

"Yeah," I said, "Knowing he's all right is enough for me for now." I couldn't describe the joy I was feeling knowing that Fang was still alive. But I still wondered what kind of promise Asch made to him. What made Asch reluctant to tell me about Fang?

"So what about the manor?" I continued, "What's so important about it?"

"Well, when I was talking to Lily," said Asch, "she told me that she's managed to hold open a rift that the whitecoats haven't found. It's somewhere here in the manor. I'm thinking the basement, because the rest of this place is a death trap. It'll take us to the Facility."

"Then let's go in," said Gazzy. He, Iggy, and Nudge, went into the manor ahead of us.

I walked next to Asch behind them. Then I whispered to Asch, "They put you in the tank huh?"

Asch whispered back, "Scariest experience of my life. I will die before I get put back into one of those."

I nodded my head and then patted his arm, "I know how you feel."

When we were inside the manor, Asch whispered to again, "Opening all of those rifts isn't good for Lily."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She's only meant to open up one of two at a time. All of those, all at the same time, it's hurting her. If they don't let her stop, she could have an aneurism, a stroke, or she could…"

He didn't need to finish. I could see the fear from the thought on his face. "We'll save her," I whispered, "We'll get her back, her and Angel."

He nodded his head. "Thanks Max."

We headed down the dark stairs into the basement. "Oh, guys," said Asch, "there's something else I need to tell you. Roland ter Borcht is at the Facility. He snuck in somehow and he's hiding in there. I don't know what he's up to, but he's definitely not invited there."

"Wonder what's going on there?" asked Iggy. "Is ter Borcht with us or against us?"

"With the way it's looking, I'd say 'with us' but I can't be sure."

"I guess we'll see when we get there," I said.

We came down to the basement. All of the monitors that were once on were now off. Only a couple of lights were on. Asch found a switch that lit up the entire room.

Some of the monitors came on. I came to a door and tried to turn the handle. It was locked. There was some sort of strange, mechanical lock on it. "We're not getting into the next room," I said.

"The rift must be in there," Asch said. "We gotta find a way in."

"You think we can unlock it using the computers?"

"It's worth a shot."

"I'll do it," said Nudge. She went over to a chair that was surrounded by monitors that had a keyboard on it. She was the best one of us with computers like this. If anyone could figure it out, she could. She pressed a few buttons. "Okay, this looks good. Uh-oh, I can't get any further without a password."

"Can't you figure out what the password is?" asked Gazzy.

"Oh yeah." Nudge touched the computer with her hand. After a few minutes, she had a look of disappointment on her face. "I can't."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean I can't. I can't figure it out."

"He must have changed the password before he shut the system down, "said Asch, "Pretty smart. But how do we figure out what it is."

"Well, we have that photo," said Iggy.

"Oh, and that _Birdman of Alcatraz_ DVD," said Gazzy.

"That's it!" shouted Asch.

"What?" I asked.

"I was talking with Max II. She was telling me how the movie _Birdman of Alcatraz_ inspired ter Borcht to start studying birds. And if you got it from F… that person in the rift, then that must be the password."

Nudge typed it into the keyboard. After a minute, she said, "That did it. I'm in!"

"YES!" we all cried.

Nudge pressed a few more buttons and then the door to the next room unlocked and opened.

"All right," I said, "now we're making progress."

We all walked through the doorway. We came into the room and found it was the room where Asch and I had fought. It had seemed like ages ago.

"This brings back some bad memories," I said.

"For whom?" asked Asch. He looked over to me and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back. I had forgotten. I won that fight.

"There it is," said Nudge. She pointed to a spot in the room. Over in one of the corners was Lily's rift, waiting for us.

"Okay, guys," I said, "Let's go in. Angel and Lily are waiting for us."

Everyone nodded their heads. We came over to the rift and walked through.


	30. The Facility

**Disclaimer:** Sdrawkcab ti did I, spoo. Edir mumixam now ton od I.

* * *

We came through the rift. I immediately started doing 360s to see where we were. We were in a forest of some kind. The smell of pine quickly overtook me. When we all passed through, the rift faded away behind us.

Up ahead though, were lights from a large building. It must have been the Facility. If they were trying to look inconspicuous, they weren't doing a very good job. You could have seen this place from an airplane.

The five of us started walking closer to it, trying to be careful of any traps or guards on duty. Then we decided to fly up into the trees and try to get a better view of any possible entrances.

Using my raptor vision, I could see a doorway not too far away. It had two guards by it that weren't the most pleasant looking.

"All right," said Asch, "I'm going on ahead."

"What?" I asked, looking right over to him.

"I have to find ter Borcht. If he runs into any Erasers, he's toast. He's gonna need help. I can probably clear a path for you as well. You guys find Angel and Lily."

I figured we should stay together, but after hearing that argument, I guess it made sense.

"Okay," I said, "but be careful."

"Don't worry about me Max." And with that, he disappeared out of the tree. I looked back down to where the guards were. They were lying down on the ground, unconscious.

We flew down to the entrance. When we landed, I saw some device with sparks coming out of it. It was a broken security camera. Asch really was clearing a path for us.

We stepped inside. The place was even bigger looking on the inside then on the outside. This wasn't a typical Itex building. It had its signature white walls and floors, and its smell of cleaner. But it was more wide open. I could see all the way to the top. There were some catwalks that went across the building. Around the building were various rooms.

Gazzy let out a whistle. I quickly silenced him when it echoed throughout the building. I made the 'shhh' sign to him, and then I whispered, "This is the base; we have to be quiet, and careful."

Gazzy nodded in understanding. I turned from him and started looking for where Asch might have gone. But this place was so wide open. He could have gone anywhere.

"So, where do we go from here?" asked Nudge.

"Well," I said, "we might as well start from the bottom and go up." This was going to take a while.

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Lily was still in the chair where Asch found her. She had an amazingly painful headache. Her whole head felt like it was about to explode. She remembered how Asch had told her she should only open one rift at a time. She tried to tell the scientists working there that but they didn't listen.

She complained to the scientists about her headache hours ago. Now they were finally going to do something about it. One of them came into the room, accompanied by three guards. He looked at a couple of the monitors on a machine near her. Then he came over to Lily.

He started to pull out the wires on her head. The guards came around her as he started to undo the straps keeping her in the chair.

Lily tried to concentrate on where Angel was. She knew where the whitecoats were keeping her. She would only have a second to get away.

When the final strap was undone, Lily quickly opened up a rift in the floor. Before the whitecoat or the guards could react, she fell through the rift and it quickly closed up. Her head was in an incredible amount of pain, but she knew she had to save Angel, no matter what. It's what Asch would do.

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Angel sat in the corner of her small cell. Total, who had grabbed on to her leg when Max II kidnapped her, came over to her to snuggle with her.

"Where's Max?" she asked, more to herself than to Total.

"She'll come soon," said Total, "She always comes to save the day."

After a moment, Angel said, "Yeah, you're right. She'll come get me."

As if on cue, a rift opened up in the wall. Angel staggered away from it in her surprise. But then Lily came through it and a smile came over Angel's face.

"Lily!" she cried as the rift closed. She came over and hugged her.

"Not so loud," whispered Lily, "you don't want the whitecoats to hear you, do you?"

"Oh, sorry," said Angel, now whispering, "So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to get out of here." Lily opened up another rift in the wall. They stepped through and came to a walkway on the outside along the building that was about eight stories up.

"Wait a minute," said Angel, "how come we're still here in the Facility?"

"Oh, no," mumbled Lily, "My power's weakening."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, let's just run."

So the three of them ran along the walkway. But they didn't get too far. Lily's headache got the best of her and she fell down. Her mind was deteriorating from opening up all the rifts.

"Lily, Lily come on, get up," cried Angel.

"Angel," said a voice from somewhere nearby. Angel looked up from Lily to see that Jeb was standing close by, with two Erasers standing behind him, "I'm afraid leaving is not an option."

Angel looked back down to Lily. She was holding her head and she was short of breath.

"Forget about her," said Jeb, walking closer, "she's no longer of any use to us."

"How could you say such a thing?!" cried Angel. She got up and started to kick and punch at Jeb.

Jeb grabbed her arm. "Take her!" he yelled to the Erasers. Angel continued to struggle in Jeb's grip, but the Erasers didn't come. "That's an order!" Jeb looked over to where the Erasers were standing.

The two Erasers just stood there with a far away look in their eyes. Then, they slowly fell over on the ground face first. Behind them stood a figure in dark blue jeans and a black hoody sweatshirt. The hood was up so his face couldn't be seen.

Jeb released his grip on Angel and stared at the figure in shock. Angel just stared at him wondering who it was. "Y… you!" stuttered Jeb in his shock, "D… didn't Ari take care of you?"

The figure said nothing.

Lily managed to look up from her position on the floor. "Perfect… timing… Fang," she said with every word being an effort.

Angel looked down at Lily in surprise, then back at the figure. "Fang?" she said to herself.

The figure then pulled something from their pocket. It was a knife. He threw it at Jeb with great speed. The knife flew towards Jeb. It passed his head just above his ear, cutting a couple of hairs and then stuck into a wall.

Jeb was frozen in shock. Before he realized it, the figure came running towards him and picked him up by his shirt collar. The figure carried him and then slammed him into a wall. But before he could do any more, Jeb extended his arm and pressed a button on the wall. Suddenly, a section of the wall where Jeb and the figure were opened up and Jeb fell through and disappeared.

The figure was about to follow him but Total got in between him and the trap door. "Fang, is that you?" he asked.

The figure silently backed away from Total. Then he turned towards Angel and Lily. Lily wasn't moving at all, or breathing. Angel was trying to wake her up, but it was no use. The figure bent down and stopped Angel. Angel looked at him with sadness. The figure shook his head.

Angel looked up at the person in the hooded sweatshirt. "Fang," she muttered, "is it really you?" She reached up, grabbed the hood, and took it down. What she saw made her stagger back a few steps. The person had a half-morphed Eraser face that looked away as the hood fell. At first, Angel thought it was Ari. Ari was the only one who was half-morphed like this. But then she looked into his mind. She gasped at what she found.

"It… it is you," said Angel.

He looked back at Angel. "Yeah, it's me Angel," said Fang.

"What happened to you?"

"I don't have three days to explain it."

"What about Lily? We can't just leave her here."

"I'm afraid we have to. We have to find the others."

"Oh, no. We're gonna have to tell Asch."

"I know, let's go." Fang managed to keep his typical straight face despite the sadness and rage he was feeling. He got up and started walking into the doorway Jeb escaped through with Angel and Total walking beside him.

* * *

Well, there you go. Fang is finally here, just like I promised. Sorry it took so long, but his return wouldn't have worked anywhere until this point. And as always, please keep sending your reviews. 


	31. Confessions

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. How many disclaimers with corny comments can one person handle?

* * *

We had made it to the fifth floor. We searched all over the first four floors and we didn't find anything that seemed to be significant. But what was really getting to me was that no Erasers had attacked us yet.

We came out to where the building was wide open in the middle. We were on a wider section of the catwalk when a voice boomed out from above us. "Well, well, the intrusions just never end, do they?"

The four of us looked up to see Jeb standing on a platform high above us. At least I thought it was Jeb. It could have been just another robot. The sight of him was making me angrier by the second.

"What do you mean?" I shouted at him.

"Well, first there is Roland ter Borcht, and then there is your friend Asch, and now you. Oh, and then there's Fang."

"What? Fang's here?!"

"Yes, it's just too bad that he let Lily die."

My heart rate skyrocketed. Not that it wasn't already sky high. Fang was here and Lily was dead. The thoughts were like spikes jammed into my brain.

"Of course," he continued, "none of that really matters. Just look there." He pointed outward towards his left.

We all looked towards where he pointed. There was a large window and through we saw this giant device. It was grey and onion-shaped. It had some sort of window on it and there was a light shining out of it.

"You've made the world's largest inedible onion?" I asked.

"No," said Jeb in an annoyed tone, "that is the Subatomic Energy Core. The key to our entire operation. With it, we have the fuel to carry out our plan to save the world. It is the source of all the energy that runs this place and that will run the other machines we must use throughout the world."

"Whoop-dee-doo," said Nudge, "you have a giant onion. That's not gonna help you beat us."

"True, but that problem is about to be solved right now." Jeb snapped his fingers. We could even hear that echo through the building.

Suddenly, several sections of wall opened around us and hundreds of Erasers flew out towards us. They landed on the catwalk or circled around above us.

I looked up to see that Jeb had disappeared from his platform like the rat he was. But now wasn't the time to think about him. I had a whole army of Erasers to think about.

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Asch ran up a flight of stairs towards a walkway. Erasers and guards were coming down to block his path but he dealt with them easily. He sliced into them with his hands burning at the ends. Every one of them he came across fell down the stairs screaming in pain.

He came to the top and went through a doorway that led to the outside. It was just after twilight, the sky now becoming darker. Lights along the sides of the building were slowly turning on.

Asch ran along the walkway, more Erasers coming to try and stop him. He took down all of them again, delivering fast, lethal kicks and punches or setting them ablaze.

The walkway made a curve around the building. As Asch rounded it, he saw something ahead of him. There were a group of Erasers surrounding something that was on the ground. It looked like a person.

Asch quickly made his way there. Before the Erasers realized he was coming up on them, Asch quickly brought them down with fast punches and kicks. They all fell to the ground unconscious.

The person who was down on the ground slowly rose up. Next to him was a strange machine that he must have brought up.

The person finally got to their feet. It was a man. He had somewhat long grey hair and a grey goatee with green eyes. He was wearing a long, white coat with black pants and black shoes.

"Thank you, my young comrade," he said.

"Dr. Roland ter Borcht," said Asch, "what are you doing here?"

"You," said ter Borcht, "I know you, don't I? Yes, you're that Asch fellow who broke into my system."

"Yeah, that's me. But don't worry. I'm on your side now. So, again, what are you doing here? Why didn't you just try to find Max or me?"

"Anne Walker and Jeb Batchelder were my apprentices. The burden of stopping them was mine to bear."

After a few seconds, Asch asked, "But that's not the only reason, is it?"

Ter Borcht walked over to the edge of the walkway and looked outward. "I can't deny there was more. I don't know what you heard or read about me, but you do know of my being put in an insane asylum in the Netherlands, correct?"

"Yeah, I know about that."

"Well, it was Jeb and Anne who had me put in there."

"What?!"

"Yes, they set me up to be caught and convinced authorities that I was crazy. Then, when I was taken away, they ran away here to the United States with my work and continued it. When I started doing this, I can assure you I had no intention of this 'Re-evolution' scheme. That was concocted by Jeb and Anne. My vision was completely different. I wanted to spread this ability of flight to all, not to just a select few."

"Wait a minute. You mean Re-evolution wasn't your idea?"

"No, I wanted to give the world the ability to fly. Think about it. If everyone could fly, there would be no need for airplanes, helicopters, trains, automobiles, or anything like that. Think of the gas and energy problem we're facing. All of that fuel that gets wasted could go into heating homes and buildings. The price of gas would drop phenomenally. But that wasn't Jeb and Anne's vision."

"So they betrayed you?"

"Yes, they had me thrown into that cursed asylum. All the time I was there, all I could think about was my work, but then my thoughts slowly changed day by day… to revenge."

"Revenge, huh? Well, I guess I can relate to that."

"They had stolen everything from me. My research, my life, and my pride."

"Well, I can't help you with revenge. I mean, I want it too. Jeb and Anne killed most of my family. But you can't let it cloud your vision of what's important."

Ter Borcht let out a sigh. "I know," he said, "Fang must have told me a thousand times."

"Now that you brought him up, where is Fang?"

"I'd imagine that he's catching up with his friends by now."

"So what exactly happened to him? I know a few of the scattered details, but he never came a hundred percent clean with me."

Ter Borcht let out another sigh. He continued to look towards the darkening sky. "I… am to blame."

"What do you mean?"

"When I first me Fang a little less than a year ago, he still had the appearance of a young man. I found him in the manor I was using as my base. He was using it as shelter after he had fought Ari… and lost. He was severely hurt. Even with his advanced healing abilities, if untreated, he would have died within hours. I nursed him back to health. And then when I found out _what _he was, I'm sure you can imagine the shock and joy I felt. Fang was a great help to me. He helped me construct my lab, and he filled me in on a lot of information that would have taken me months to find on my own."

"You know, he had a blog. You probably could have used that to get some other things."

Ter Borcht let out a laugh. "Yes, I've seen his blog. He has a talent for writing. Anyway, when he told me about Max, I did some research into Itex and found how they had erased her memories. I began building a machine that would create a virtual world where I could keep her safe and restore her memory. I asked Fang to go find Max and bring her to me. He left without a word, as per his usual self. He went and fought Ari who was keeping Max for reasons only known to him. And I can only imagine that Fang lost that fight as well. He went to an Itex building and found something called Boost, a drug Jeb and Anne developed to make Erasers stronger and faster. He took it and fought Ari again, this time killing him. He brought Max to me and I put her in my virtual world and began restoring her memory. Then the side affects of the drug started to kick in and he began to look as he does now. I think you know the rest from there."

"So that's the story," said Asch, "During his time with you, I met Fang on a few occasions. We told each other our stories. I told him I didn't trust you, because I thought you were working with Itex. But he stood by your side. He wanted so much to help Max. More than I did. The last time we met though, after he changed, he made me promise not to tell Max what happened to him while he was out looking for her."

Ter Borcht groaned in disappointment. "Fang became the true victim of my revenge. How my heart ached. After his transformation, he re-introduced himself as Ari. I could only laugh… to hide my shame."

Ter Borcht turned around to face Asch. "The time has come. I must make amends to these young people I've hurt so much." He walked over to the device that was lying on the ground and picked it up with both hands. Then the two of them continued walking along the catwalk, further into the building.


	32. Fang, For Real This Time

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. I think I'll just leave it at that.

* * *

The Erasers were coming from all over the place. We were managing to hold our own pretty well. But they wouldn't stop coming.

I landed a punch square in the jaw of one Eraser and then I elbowed another behind me in the ribs. Then I delivered a roundhouse to him, knocking him down. But then another one came and grabbed me from behind. I managed to wriggle free and knock him out and over the rail of the catwalk.

I could see the others handling themselves pretty well. A few minutes later, after taking down about maybe twenty more Erasers, I saw Iggy and Gasman together. They were huddled together like they were up to something. This couldn't have been good.

I shouldn't have let myself get distracted. I wound up taking a stiff shot in the cheek, knocking me to the ground. Several Erasers then stood over me smiling. "End of the road," said one of them.

"GET DOWN!" cried Iggy. I was glad I was already down on the ground. When Iggy or Gazzy tell you to get down after huddling together, you do it. No questions asked. I covered my face with my arms.

I heard a loud BOOM and then felt a rush of heat. There was lots of screams of agony.

I moved my arms from my face. The Erasers that were standing over me were gone. I got up and looked around. There some burned Eraser remains around on the catwalk. Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy were all right. The scene told the story.

Iggy and Gazzy must have managed to hide yet another bomb from me and they threw it in the air. The concussion from it blew away any Erasers around us and the rest got barbequed.

"Everyone okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Nudge.

"Oh, man that was so cool," said Gazzy. With that enthusiasm, he must have been fine.

"Thank you Sebastian," said Iggy.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"That was one of Sebastian's bombs," he answered, "He showed me how he makes bombs and I kept one that he helped me make. I wouldn't mind having a few more like those."

Wow, even in the afterlife, the Counter-Breed was still finding a way to help us.

I looked around to survey the damage. Then I noticed some movement up near where Jeb was standing. I looked up. There were some more Erasers who were fighting somebody, no, two people.

I recognized one of them. It was Angel. My baby was okay. But the other person who was fighting with her I didn't recognize. He was wearing a black, hoody sweatshirt and dark blue jeans. I took a closer look at his face with my raptor vision. He looked like an Eraser, but not really.

Then I realized who it must have been. There was only one person I knew who looked like a half-morphed Eraser. Ari!

But what was he doing fighting with Angel? Wasn't he against us?

Then I noticed that not all of the Erasers around us got taken out. There were still nine of them that survived the explosion. I wanted to go up and get to Angel but I had to deal with these guys as they charged us.

After a few minutes of some intense fighting, we were able to take them out. All I could think about in that time was getting to Angel and taking out anything that got in my way.

After the fight, I flew up to where Angel was. The others followed me. She and Ari had just finished off the Erasers they were fighting with.

"Max!" she cried. She ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug ever. "You're all right."

"I'm fine," I said, "what about you?"

"I'm okay, but… but Lily's…"

I knew the rest of the sentence. Jeb was actually telling the truth for once.

I looked over to the person she was with. He was walking away.

"Wait, Ari," I said. He stopped walking and turned his head, but not to a point where he faced me.

"Knowing some of the things that you've done makes me really mad," I continued, "but… but you saved Angel. I have to be grateful for that."

He turned his head back and continued walking away. Then Angel ran away from me and towards him. When she reached him, she grabbed his hand.

"No," she said, "Don't go, Fang."

The four of us dropped our jaws. "What?!" we all cried.

"Angel," I said, "what did you just say?"

She looked at me, still holding Ari's hand. "Fang, its Fang Max."

Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy all had very perplexed looks on their faces. But they couldn't have been as perplexed as me.

"I'm no one," said the person, sounding worried, "just a castaway from the Itex experiments."

I just didn't know what to say. Angel was trying to tell me that this Eraser-like person was Fang. I wanted to believe her, but I just didn't know what to think.

"Come here Max," said Angel, "you'll see."

I walked towards her and the person with her. When I reached her, she took my hand and brought me to face the person.

"Look at him, Max. I've read his thoughts. It's him. Just look at him."

I looked up at his face. He was certainly tall like Fang. I looked into his face. His hair was black like Fang's but he had more hair than necessary that ran along the side of his face. He also had a half snout. It was long, but not very, not like a regular Eraser. Then I looked into his eyes. The person's eyes were dark… like Fang's.

Oh, God, those eyes. My eyes widened in realization. I'd know those eyes anywhere. I've looked into them hundreds of times. They were Fang's. It really was Fang.

Without realizing it until it was too late, I fell to my knees and started crying. I grabbed onto Fang's shirt to support myself. "Fang," I said in between my sobs, "Fang, it's really you. I… I looked for you. I missed you so much."

I just couldn't believe I was crying like this. I hated myself for looking so pathetic.

"C'mon Max," said Fang, his voice still the same, the one I missed so much, "You've got to pull it together."

I looked up to him. "Where were you?" I asked.

"I didn't want you to find me."

"Then that must have been Fang," said Iggy.

"What are you talking about?" asked Gazzy.

"Those clues we got in the rift. That must have been Fang who gave them to us."

Fang looked over to Iggy. "I was starting to think that you guys weren't going to catch on. That's why I came here myself."

"Fang," I said, calming down and getting back on my feet, "why didn't you just come find us?"

"I told you Max, I didn't want you to find me. Not like this." He held up his hands and looked at them. "I fought with Ari, twice, trying to rescue you, and lost both times. But then I took this performance-enhancing drug made for Erasers called Boost. When I met Ari again, I was the winner. I brought you to Roland ter Borcht's lab where you could get your memories restored. But then I turned into this, the very thing I hated."

"Is there a way to change you back?"

"I haven't given up on that yet. Asch has been trying to help me find a way too.

"Asch? So he did know about you?"

"Yeah, but I made him promise not to tell you about me. So, don't get mad at him, get mad at me."

"Oh, I could never get mad at you Fang."

"Yeah, you can. You could just never _stay_ mad at me."

I couldn't help but smile. I was so happy to have him back. The others came over to us. We were all together again. It was so great. I just wished that Fang was back to the way he was. But it didn't matter. He was here, and he was real.

"We'll help you find a way to change back," said Nudge.

"Yeah," I said, "you're still Fang, no matter what."

"Aww, man," said Fang with a strange look on his face.

"What?"

"Asch said you'd say that. He really knows you well."

I couldn't help but smile again. "C'mon Fang," I said, and we continued walking through the building, together.

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Asch and ter Borcht came to a platform that was above the flock. "Look," said Asch, "it's Fang. He's with Max and the others."

Ter Borcht looked over the edge to see the group, still carrying his machine. "Let them have their reunion," he said, "they deserve it and we have other business to attend to."

"Man, I wonder if Fang will ever change back."

"Only time will tell. Max and Fang are back together. We have no part to play there." He continued walking along the walkway they were on.

Asch continued to stand where he was, looking down at the group, at Max. "Yeah," he sighed with a hint of disappointment, "I know."

He left the spot to catch up with ter Borcht.

* * *

Please keep sending those reviews. We're coming to the end here folks. I really want to know what all of you think. 


	33. One More Test

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. Do not read this disclaimer.

* * *

Asch and ter Borcht came to yet another walkway that was on the outside along the building. It was now completely dark out. They came to a point where they could see a large, strange device mounted high above them.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Asch, pointing to it.

"Yes," said ter Borcht, "that is the Subatomic Energy Core, the very thing that fuels Re-evolution."

"It looks like a giant onion."

Ter Borcht began to laugh. "Yes, I suppose it does." Then he took his machine and placed it on the ground in an upright position. The machine was grey and had four legs. The body was a rectangular shape with some buttons, knobs, and gauges. On the top there was something resembling a gun.

"This spot should do," said ter Borcht.

"What is this thing anyway?" asked Asch.

"It's a machine that can take objects and encode them as data, similar to the one I used to place Max in my virtual world."

"So what are you planning on doing with this?"

"I'm going to take the Subatomic Energy Core and encode it as data. That way, no one from Itex will ever be able to fuel this evil plan."

"Do you think it'll work?"

"Well, I can't answer that question. My machines have only been used to encode solid objects. I've never tried it with pure energy before."

Ter Borcht took the gun of the machine and aimed at the giant window of the core. When he had the gun lined up, he pressed a couple of buttons on the machine. Then there was a mechanical whirring coming from it. A white circle of light formed at the end of the gun and then a white beam blasted from the machine towards the Energy Core.

All Asch and ter Borcht could do now was watch and wait.

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We continued making our way through the building. We made it up a couple more floors. There was nothing else that stood out that we needed to look at. And there were no other Eraser attacks since the last one we had before meeting Fang and Angel.

I still couldn't believe that Fang was back. We were all together again. But still there was just one thing wrong. I'm pretty sure you can figure it all out.

Yep, Fang still looked like an Eraser, kind of. I wanted him back to normal. I liked him better that way. He was hot.

Whoa, no time for those kind of thoughts. But still… he had to get back to normal.

We came into a large room with a giant glass window. There wasn't much in it, but we could see the Energy Core. Then I noticed a beam of light coming from somewhere into the Core.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's Doc," said Fang, "I mean, Dr. Roland ter Borcht."

"I wonder if Asch is with him," said Iggy.

"I'd imagine so. Ter Borcht wouldn't have been able to make it without some protection."

"Yes," said a voice from somewhere else in the room. We looked over to where the voice came from. Jeb was standing in a corner of the room by the giant window.

"Ter Borcht always manages to get incredibly lucky like that," Jeb said.

Now I really had to give points to Jeb for bravery. There was the six of us all together, seven if you included Total, and here he was all by himself right next to us.

But then again, he probably had something waiting nearby to take us out. A horde of Erasers, some new mutant experiment, or who knows what else.

He started walking towards us. "I have to congratulate you all on making it this far. I have to say, I honestly didn't think you'd make it. But you continue to defy the odds Max."

"Isn't that why you made me?"

"Yes, but I also made you to save the world and follow orders, which you haven't done very much at all."

"Here we go, back to this. How about we just skip the debate and we get right to the part where I kick your ass?"

He stopped walking. He was about two feet from us. I could have just flown straight at him and annihilated him right then and there. But something was telling me that something wasn't right.

"There you go again Max," said Jeb, "letting your emotions cloud your thoughts."

"My god, you are like a broken record. How many times do we have to have this conversation before you realize we're just never going to agree?"

And then it hit me. This wasn't Jeb at all.

"Wait a minute. You're just another one of those robots, aren't you?"

"Very good Max. You continue to impress me."

"So if you're just a robot," said Fang, "then where's the real Jeb."

"Oh, he's run off somewhere. But I wouldn't be able to tell you where."

"I say we just destroy him now," said Gazzy.

"Hold on Gazzy," I said, holding out my arm, "He could be another one of those bombs like in the building in San Francisco."

"Perceptive as ever Max. You're right. I might be a bomb. I could explode at any second. How do you get yourself out of this situation?"

"You are not about to tell me this is a test."

"No, this is your judgment. Are you and your friends truly worthy to exist in this world Maximum Ride?"

I couldn't believe this. Jeb was actually giving me a chance to prove my worthiness. Not that I needed one. But I didn't understand why all of a sudden he was doing something like this.

Nonetheless, I had to figure out if this Jeb-bot was a bomb or not. And if so, how do we stop it from turning us into toaster crumbs?

I reached for its shirt and ripped it off. I saw the mechanical parts of him, but I didn't see any timer like the last one.

"No timer," I said.

"Not all bombs have timers," said Iggy.

"Well, you and Gazzy are the experts. You figure out if he's a bomb."

"All right, we will," said Gazzy.

They came up to the Jeb robot. "Very good Max," it said, "using your resources. Very smart."

"Shut… up," I told it.

Iggy went around feeling the mechanics of it while Gazzy looked around it, trying to spot anything that said the thing was a bomb.

"I don't see anything that looks like bomb material," said Gazzy.

"Neither do I," said Iggy. Everyone, including me, rolled their eyes.

"Anyway, from what we can tell, he isn't, but the only way to know for sure would be to take him apart. But even that could be dangerous, and we don't have the proper tools."

"So then how do we know for sure?" I asked, starting to get frustrated, "He could blow up any second."

"What will you do?" asked the Jeb-bot.

"I told you to shut up." This was starting to get to me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have the Voice in my head to guide me. I had to rely on myself, my instincts. Everyone was looking at me, looking to me to lead them.

I looked at the Jeb-bot. Is he a bomb or not? The question just consumed my mind.

"I don't think you're a bomb," I said, "in fact, I know you're not a bomb."

"Are you sure Max?" the Jeb-bot asked in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I said as confidently as possible.

"All right Max, if that's your decision." The Jeb-bot then froze in place. We all froze as well, fearing the worst. But after a few minutes, but nothing happened.

I came up to it. There wasn't any counter or anything that appeared. I touched it and then the Jeb-bot fell over on the ground. We all thought it was going to explode just then. We covered our faces and braced for it, but nothing happened.

"So, what was that about?" asked Angel.

"You don't think Jeb has actually started to care about us, do you?" asked Nudge.

"I doubt that," said Iggy, "but I don't get what this robot was for. Was he testing our will or something?"

"Maybe he was just providing a distraction while he made his escape," suggested Gazzy.

"Well, whatever it was," I said, "it was a waste of time."

"So, Jeb ran away," said Fang, "What a coward."

"That means all there is left is Anne Walker," I said. "She's the only one left, and she must be here."

"Let's head for where that beam of light is coming from," said Fang, "That must be where Asch and Dr. ter Borcht are."

So we left the room and headed towards the beam.


	34. Ter Borcht's Resolve, Fang's Fate

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. Or Kingdom Hearts II. I didn't want KH II to feel left out.

* * *

Ter Borcht's machine continued to fire the beam, but it began to shake. He went up to it and grabbed a hold of it with both of his hands. After a minute, it began to shake even faster.

"Dr. ter Borcht," said Asch, "what's happening with the machine?"

Ter Borcht merely let out a loud laugh. Then he said, "I'm an incredible fool. I should have known that attempting to encode pure energy would only fail."

"Then what's going to happen?" asked Asch.

"It's going to self-destruct. The energy itself will be harmless once it is exposed to the air, but the force from it being released will probably obliterate anything within about five feet of the machine. And anything could happen after that occurs."

"Then get away from there. Let go of it."

"No."

"What?!"

"I'm not leaving this spot."

"What are you doing? What are you thinking?"

"I'm _thinking_ like a smart person instead of like a genius, which I've been doing all this time."

Asch could not respond. He was too stunned by what ter Borcht was saying. By his decision to die.

"All my life, I've loved birds. I loved to study them. I loved to research them and learn new things about them. And I loved to watch them fly, to know that they have a freedom like no other. I wanted to have that freedom. I wanted the world to have that freedom. So I began my experiments. I was convinced I could create avian-human hybrids. And I succeeded. Only what I didn't see, was what it cost. No, I did see. I just turned away. All of those innocent lives lost. What I didn't see was how easily my vision could have been corrupted by the likes of people like Jeb and Anne."

"But that's the thing Dr. ter Borcht. As smart as you are, you're only human. Anyone could have made that mistake."

"I suppose, but it was my arrogance that blinded me to it. I was just too confident for my own good. It was that very pride that drove me toward my desire for revenge."

"You don't have to this."

"I must. I vowed I would die before I let this experiment be taken away from me. And now it has, yet I'm still alive. So if I must die, it will be making sure this corruption is stopped."

"No…" It was all Asch could get out. Ter Borcht had made his decision. Just like Asch had once made the decision to kill Max. He didn't want to do it, but it was what had to be done.

Just then, Max and the flock came up the walkway and found them.

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We came up the walkway and found Asch and Dr. ter Borcht. Ter Borcht was holding onto a machine that was shaking erratically. The beam was coming from the top of it.

"Max," said Asch, "keep back. The machine's about to blow."

"Well, then what's he doing there?" I asked pointing to Dr. ter Borcht.

"He's not gonna move."

"What?!"

"He's made his decision. There's nothing we can do."

"But…" Suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder. I looked to see it was Fang.

"He's made his choice Max," he said, "Let him do it."

"Max," said ter Borcht. I looked over to him. "The rest is up to you now. And…I doubt you can forgive me, but I am… sorry."

"Well, well, well," said a voice from somewhere nearby. I looked over to see that it was Anne Walker coming over from the other side of the walkway. "I was wondering who would be trying to destroy my Subatomic Energy Core. And here you all are. How convenient for me." Then she pulled out an AK-47 and pointed it at us.

We staggered back from it a little bit. If she started firing away, we wouldn't be able to escape it.

Anne looked over at ter Borcht at his machine. "Dr. Roland ter Borcht," she said, "you look absolutely pathetic."

"Have your laugh," he said, "I deserve it for not seeing you as the conniving snake you really are."

Anne let out a laugh. "You know, I think I understand. I can't believe I never saw it before. You're jealous. You're jealous of me taking your work further than you ever dared. You're jealous that I have surpassed you in every way."

Ter Borcht said nothing. He only continued holding the machine.

"I understand, though. It's only human to feel hatred towards those who are better than you. Of course, being angry at me is pointless. You are the one who started all of this. It was your research that inspired me to go further."

"I admit, it was my disregard that brought more chaos and ruin to more lives than one. But what were you seeking? You threw me into that damned asylum just to take my research and bring it to a level only a madman would appreciate."

"Madman? I'm merely carrying on what you began. You wanted to improve the world, and that is what I'm doing. I'm carrying on your dream."

"My dream didn't involve mass genocide!"

"I know, you became weak. You used to be willing to sacrifice for the greater good. But then you made a crucial mistake. You looked back. You should never look back when trying to accomplish a goal. You saw what you left in your wake, and it made you weak. Jeb and I merely decided to cut you off and further your research and create a brand new world. I thought you'd praise me, but all you do is hold me back. That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't looked back. But that's okay. Like I said, I understand your jealousy of your apprentice surpassing you."

"Anne, you have surpassed nothing. You have only proved how stupid we really are. It's like the saying goes: 'If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings'. I made the mistake of trying to be Him and bestow the world with the ability to fly. And I made the mistake of bringing you and Jeb along. But you… you are simply making the same mistake I did. That's why any world you try to create is destined to fall! Because it is made of ignorance from a person blind with arrogance!"

Anne cocked the gun and held it up ready to fire. The machine started to shake even more violently.

"We've said enough," said ter Borcht, "Max, it's your hands now. And Fang, thank you for all of your help. Forgive me for what I've done to you."

Fang nodded his head. Sparks started to come out of the machine and then a loud whirring noise came from it. "Farewell!" yelled ter Borcht.

With that, a giant explosion blasted from the machine. Asch and Fang dove towards me and the flock, trying to shield us from the blast.

We all fell to the ground. When the explosion faded, I looked up to see little twinkling lights falling down. They quickly faded as they sprinkled down.

We all got up and looked around. Anne was gone. There was a giant hole in the walkway where Dr. ter Borcht was standing with his machine.

Then I saw something that scared me. Fang was still on the ground. For a second, I feared the worst. But when I bent down, I saw that he was still moving. And then I saw something that completely stunned me.

Fang wasn't an Eraser anymore. He didn't have any excess hair on his face. His nose no longer looked like a snout. His skin was back to its normal, olive color. I just couldn't believe it.

"Fang," I said, "you're back to normal."

Fang gasped as what I said sank in. He felt his face with his hand. Then he looked at his hand. He cracked a smile as it dawned on him that I was right.

We both got back to our feet. I could hear the others gasp as they saw Fang.

"Fang, why did you try to do everything by yourself?" I asked. "I mean, you've got us."

Fang seemed to look around at everyone who was here. Then he looked back at me. "Have you forgotten?" he said.

"What?"

"It's because I'm not a total sap like you." Then he gave a rare but amazing smile.

"Excuse me? Say that again."

Before he could say anything, we heard a loud lurching sound. We all looked over the side of the walkway. There was an entire horde of Erasers making their way up the building. Some of them flying, some of them not.

"Now what do we do?" I said.

"We have to stop Anne Walker," said Fang, "she's the leader of this insane plot. We stop her, we stop everything."

"Wait a minute," said Asch.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"You guys found Angel. Didn't you find Lily?"

Shock instantly washed over me. I knew this was going to come. But still we had to tell him. "Well…" but I never got a chance to finish.

"I'm right here," said a familiar little voice from behind us.

We all turned around to see Lily standing there, alive.

"Lily!" Asch cried. He ran over to the girl and picked her up and embraced her in a huge hug. She hugged him back. "Oh, my baby, you're all right."

"So are you," said Lily, "but I have this really bad headache."

"Okay, well, try not to think about it. You won't be opening any more rifts for a while. I'm just glad you're all right."

_I thought Lily was dead_. It was Angel in my head. _Should we tell him about what happened?_

I answered back to her in my thoughts. _No, we don't need to worry him. She's all right now, so there's no need to tell him._

Asch put Lily down and they came back to us. "So what's the plan?" Asch asked.

"Let's follow after Anne," I said, "We've got to stop her before she can pull anything else. We'll do it together." I put my hand in.

Everyone else stuck their hands in and started to do our hand-stacking thing. I patted the top of the stack.

We all started to head further along the walkway. Then I noticed Fang take off his hoody sweatshirt behind us. He had a black short-sleeve t-shirt. It's always black with him. God, I missed him.

I guess he was hot in it. Well, he was, but I mean literal heat.

So we headed up to face Anne, together at last.


	35. The Devil Herself

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. I just own copies of the books.

* * *

We continued to walk along the walkway. We made sure to keep an eye out behind us for that army of Erasers that we knew was coming for us.

"So how did you change back Fang?" asked Nudge, out of the blue.

All of a sudden the question hit me as well. What did happen to make Fang change back? Not that I was complaining, but I was curious.

"I don't know," said Fang.

"Did the Boost wear off?" Nudge asked.

"I doubt it."

"I think it had something to do with the Subatomic Energy that exploded out of the machine," said Asch, still carrying Lily, "ter Borcht did say that anything could happen once it exploded."

"Well, all that matters is that he's back to normal," I said.

"Yeah, you're right," said Nudge.

The walkway brought us inside the building again. It went upwards to the other side of the building. But as we went across, we heard that loud lurching sound again. We looked over the rail to see that more Erasers were making their way up the building, no doubt after us.

"Uh-oh," I said, "we better hurry."

So we started to run across the walkway. But it turned out to be no use. Some of the Erasers were flyers. And they made it to us. We just about reached the other side of the building when I looked behind me. The horde was bigger and faster than I thought. They were running up the walkway after us.

"Uhh, guys," I said. The others turned around to see the army coming for us. I could see that some of them went wide-eyed.

"There's gonna be no end to this," said Fang.

"Leave them to me," said Asch, stepping forward. He looked over to me, "Here, take Lily." He handed Lily to me and I took her in my arms. She moaned as he did. She seemed to be semi-conscious. She might have needed medical attention.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'll deal with these guys. The rest of you go after Anne Walker."

"Are you sure?" I said.

"Of course, I can take these guys on, no problem."

He stepped ahead of us and bent down. He placed his hands on the walkway. He started to let out a groan and I could suddenly feel it start to get hot beneath my feet. Then it made sense. He was going to take out the walkway using his pyrokinesis.

We got out of the area, leaving Asch alone with the entire army of Erasers. As we headed back to the outside, I heard the sound of screeching, like prying metal. Then there was a chorus of screams that started to fade.

We continued walking along the walkway, with me still carrying Lily. We were very close to the top of the building. There was a staircase up ahead of us. We climbed to the top. When we did, there was a circular area. It seemed like we were on top of a tower. There were a couple of computers along the outside of the area. And up ahead of us was the Subatomic Energy Core, now half-drained from ter Borcht's machine, as we could see in the window.

But right in front of us was Anne Walker at one of the computers, the AK-47 at her side. I heard her mumbling to herself and then I put Lily down. "Can you stand?" I whispered to her.

"Yeah, I can," she said. What a trooper.

"The Subatomic Energy Core has been ruined thanks to you," said Anne. Apparently, she knew we were there. She turned around to face us. "Now I have to start all over again, because of you and ter Borcht."

"We're so sorry to put in a dent in your plans of destroying the world," I said.

"Let me ask you a question: Why do you want to stop me? What is it about me that makes you feel you must stop me?"

"Well, you want to destroy the world. I was made to stop you."

"But I don't want to destroy the world. Hasn't Jeb explained this to you? I'm looking to improve it. Make it so that only the best and the greatest survive."

"But what about the rest of the world?" asked Gazzy, "Don't they count for something?"

"They need to be cut off. They only bring us down, just like ter Borcht. There is nothing significant or special about them worth saving."

"So what if everyone isn't perfect?" asked Nudge, "If everyone in this world were perfect, then life would be boring. Imperfection is what makes people special."

"But it is because of people that the world needs Re-evolution."

"Yeah," said Iggy, "but people are capable of learning from their mistakes. You could just give them a chance instead of playing God and choosing for them whether they should live or die."

"If the world today was capable of learning from their mistakes, then it would not be in the shape it is in now."

"That might be true," said Fang, "but people have the right to choose the path of destruction. They don't need you to pronounce judgment on them."

"Ironic words coming from someone who turned themselves into one of us."

"Face it Anne," I said, "You're just a megalomaniac who's run out of resources. Your world domination plan is done, especially with your Subatomic Energy Core half-drained."

"Oh, the core can be repaired. It will take time, but so does perfection."

"You won't get the chance. We're stopping you, and Re-evolution, right here, now!"

"You can't stop Re-evolution. Even if you do stop me, another will take my place. Marian Janssen may have disappeared, but all she'll need is to be found and convinced. And even if that doesn't happen, there are many others who can and will take my place."

"That's not gonna happen!" yelled Fang.

"Oh, it won't? I suppose you think you're going to kill me too, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" asked Angel, "_I_ could break you in two."

"Oh, you could?" Anne opened her hand and four small bottles rolled out and onto the floor.

"Oh, no," said Fang, as we watched them roll on the floor.

"What?" I asked him.

"Those are Boost bottles. She took four, I only took one," then he looked up at Anne, "You fool!"

"Since no one can seem to destroy you," said Anne, "I'll do it myself."

"There's no way you could take all of us," I said, "even if you are hopped on Boost."

"That's what you think."

Then she came at us, surprisingly very quickly. She threw a punch at me that knocked me flat on my butt. The others came after her. But she managed to throw them off. With the Boost in her system, she was going to tough to beat now. If one was enough to have Fang beat Ari, then someone with four was going to be really tough.

I got up and landed a couple of punches on Anne. But she kicked in me in my stomach, and then an uppercut that sent me flying onto my back. Fang went in and landed some shots, and then Iggy came in to get some licks of his own.

Anne managed to knock them away but Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy came out to attack her. The numbers game turned out to be too much for her. She managed to squirm away from us. I noticed something strange about her. Her face seemed a little different. It was darker somehow. The Boost's side affect were starting to kick in. She was becoming wolf-like.

"Well, maybe you were right," said Anne.

Just then, there was a loud BOOM! The whole place shook for a bit.

"What was that?!" demanded Anne.

"That must be Asch," I said, "stopping all of your little minions for us."

"I see. That could prove to be foolish. He's proven to very reckless. It's only a matter of time before he destroys himself, especially with his power."

"Shut up!" yelled Lily, "You don't know anything. Asch can survive anything. He won't lose!"

Another large boom sounded. This time I could see the flames of an explosion below. The floor beneath my feet was starting to feel a little warm. Maybe Asch was getting a little too carried away. Good thing fire couldn't hurt him. I hoped he was all right.

There was another explosion that shook the tower violently. The place was getting destroyed. The tower rocked violently. We all managed to hold our place, but Anne wasn't so lucky. She was standing too close to the edge, and then fell over. We could hear her scream fading as she fell.

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The Erasers just kept coming for Asch. Every one he took out, it seemed like two more took its place. But it was no problem. He could have kept up this fighting all day.

After melting a portion of the walkway he was on and collapsing it, he took to the air and fought all of the flying Erasers, not having to have to worry about the grounded ones.

He lost count of how many he took out after forty-seven. Another came flying at him, but Asch moved out of the way. He grabbed the Eraser by its wings as it flew by and ripped its wings off. It screamed in pain as it began to fall. But Asch grabbed him by the arms and then spun and flung him into another charging Eraser. They crumpled into the wall and quickly fell to the bottom of the building.

When Asch looked down, he was amused to see that some of the grounded Erasers were climbing the walls. How were they supposed to get him if they couldn't fly? More flying Erasers came at Asch, but he burned them away shooting streams of fire. He grabbed one of the Erasers and threw it at the ones climbing the wall. It crashed into the one at the top, and they fell, knocking the ones below them off.

Another Eraser came and landed a kick in Asch's stomach. Asch bent over and then the Eraser slashed at Asch's face with his claws, leaving three jagged scratched on the left side of his face. Asch blocked another punch and landed one in the Eraser's neck. Then he took his index and middle finger and gouged them into its eyes. It screamed out in pain and fell down, too concerned with its pain to remember to flap.

Three more came and grabbed at Asch, trying to tear him apart. But Asch sent a wave of fire that split them in two halves, the six pieces also falling. Another Eraser came and attacked. But Asch grabbed him by the head, and then set in on fire. It also fell screaming in agony.

Asch was so preoccupied with his fighting that he barely noticed the headache that he was getting. Eraser after Eraser kept coming and Asch took them out one by one, in one grisly way or another. The ones on the ground or on the walkways only looked up and watched as their own fell down towards or past them.

Asch's head progressively got worse, to a point where he couldn't ignore it anymore. He held his head when he had a few seconds. It was starting to get to him. This was what Dr. Martinez was warning him about before, about expending all of his energy.

More Erasers flew towards him. He lit his hands on fire and slashed at them, leaving deep gashes in them that sent them falling. Then he formed his fire rings and started tossing them at any nearby flying Erasers, not missing once. An Eraser tried to get behind him, but he used his speed to get behind it, and then brought the rings up through the Eraser, splitting it in two. Asch continued to throw the rings. With each toss, his headache felt like it got a little bit worse.

Asch let the fire rings fade. The Erasers just couldn't seem to learn as they kept coming. Asch continued to make them plunge to their doom with lethal kicks and punches. He blasted several of them away with fire streams.

After taking out another thirty or forty Erasers, Asch's head seemed to pound now with his headache. An Eraser came at him and punched him in the face, which did not help his headache. Another came from behind him and shoulder tackled him in the back, sending him into the wall. Asch managed to start hovering again but he slowly descended. He made the mistake of holding his head again.

The Eraser charged him and rammed him against the wall. This time Asch fell down onto the next catwalk, where a bunch of ground Erasers was waiting. They all licked their lips and laughed, knowing that Asch was defeated. Asch gripped at his head with both hands as he came to his knees. His head felt like it was going to explode.

Asch didn't understand what was going on. Why was this happening? It was even worse than before. He thought he felt his brain literally throb. Then there was another strange feeling. It felt like the entire area's temperature was quickly rising.

The Erasers sensed it as well. They stopped laughing and started to complain about why the room was getting so hot all of a sudden. The lights started to flicker from the heat. Others went out. The walkway started to feel like it was a heated iron.

After a few moments, the clothes on the Erasers and Asch started to smoke, and then they caught fire. The Erasers started to scream and panic. They ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, some of them knocking others off of the walkway.

Asch suddenly heard a loud boom. Something exploded because of this heat. Asch's clothes were burning away, but it didn't hurt him. Heat or fire couldn't hurt him. The only pain he was worried about was in his head.

The temperature must have been scorching now. The walkway was melting now. The lights had gone out, and the emergency ones came on, but they started to flicker as well. Another explosion sounded; this one even louder.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. He had used his powers way too much in a short amount of time. He never gave his body enough time to recuperate. His body fainting earlier was almost a warning sign that he needed rest. But he didn't take the hint. His recklessness had finally got the better of him.

All he could think of now was Max and Lily. He would never see them again. He would never get to keep the promise he made to Max. He would never get to take care of Lily and watch her grow up. That he was going to die. His last thought was, _I'm sorry, Lily. I'm sorry, Max. I love you._

Then all Asch could see was fire surrounding him, and then only darkness.

* * *

This is it. My next post will be the final two chapters. I hope you enjoy them. And of course, please read and review this chapter. Thank you. 


	36. Showdown

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride. Have I made that clear yet?

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After Anne fell down, we realized that this whole place was going up in flames. We had to get out now.

"We better take off before those explosions reach over here." I said.

"But we don't know which way to go," said Nudge, "We have no idea where we are."

"I have an idea," said Lily, "I could open up a rift."

"No, Lily," I said, "We don't know what kind of effect opening all those rifts had on you. And we should get you examined for it."

"I think I'm all right to open up one more, and then I won't open up any more. I promise."

There was yet another explosion that shook the tower. "Well, we better do something," said Iggy, "that sounded like it something with a lot of fuel, and I'd hate to think what happens when the Core explodes. So are we flying or crossing dimensions?"

I looked back and forth between the exploding building, the sky, and Lily. I had to make a decision quickly.

"I have Dr. Martinez's house," said Lily, "I can open a rift there now."

Then I made my decision. "All right, open a rift Lily, but you guys have to get in fast."

"Okay," said Lily. She opened up a rift near us. I made Lily go first, followed by Angel. Nudge followed her.

"See you on the other side Max," she said.

Gasman led Iggy through. "Hurry up," said Gazzy, "the place is about ready to blow."

All that was left was me and Fang. We were about to go through when we heard a noise that was growing louder. Then I recognized it as copter blades. I looked behind me to see that a helicopter was rising out from behind the tower. Then I saw inside the cockpit. Anne was the pilot! She had somehow survived the fall and now she was making her escape in a helicopter.

Or at least that's what I thought until I saw the chain gun on the bottom of the copter aiming for us.

The gun started to fire, but Fang and I flew out of the way before it could hit us. We got out of the gun's range, but then I noticed something on the tower. The rift was gone. It had faded away. Then I realized that some of the bullets might have gone through the rift and… oh, God. I didn't want to think about it.

I didn't have time to anyway. Anne turned the copter around and started to get away. Fang flew next to me as I hovered in the air, trying to think of what to do next, even though it was obvious.

"C'mon!" he yelled, "we can't let her get away!"

I nodded my head and we both flew after the helicopter. We managed to catch up with it on it its left side. "So how do you suggest we take down a helicopter by ourselves?"

"I'm gonna rip that gun right off and fire away."

"Breaking my 'no gun' rule again, huh?"

"No, I'm following the 'save the world' rule."

Fang started to swoop in, but Anne must have seen us coming. She started to swerve the helicopter towards us, dipping the copter blades towards us. We managed to get out of the way in time. I managed to get on its right side while Fang stayed on the left.

I managed to get near the cockpit. I could see Anne. She was becoming even more like an Eraser. Her nose was becoming elongated into a snout, fur was growing along the sides of her face, and her ears were becoming triangular. She saw me flying near and looked over to me, an evil scowl on her face.

She tried swinging the helicopter side to side to try and throw me off. But it didn't work. I managed to stay with it.

I looked down to see that Fang had managed to get on the underside of the helicopter. He was working at the gun, trying to wrench it off. I hoped I could keep Anne distracted long enough so she wouldn't notice.

Anne continued swaying the copter, but she couldn't get us away. Finally, Fang unhooked the chain gun from the bottom of the copter. He let go and fell behind the copter, gun in hand. He spread his wings and started flying towards the copter again.

I let go and flew back until I was next to Fang. He figured out a way to make it fire and then aimed it at the helicopter. He started firing away. I could see the yellow sparks from the bullets scraping into the metal. Fang's shots were a little off a couple of times, but his shots were mostly right on.

"These things are so cool!" shouted Fang over the roar of the gun, "I can't believe you don't let us use these against Erasers."

I shook my head. What was it with boys and guns?

Suddenly a flume of smoke came out of the helicopter. The helicopter started to sound like the engine was dying and it slowly started to descend.

As it did, the helicopter started to rotate around. Anne was trying to prevent it from crashing. We were over a forest and hit some trees, jutting violently as it did.

It ended up crashing in an open field. The tail was ripped off and the helicopter fell apart, a small fire forming in the remains.

With our raptor vision, we could see down into the wreckage. The moon was out and very bright, so that helped too. There was some sort of movement. Then I could see what it was. It was Anne. She had survived the crash.

"What does that Boost stuff do to you?" I asked in frustration.

"It doesn't make you invincible, I know that," said Fang.

We swooped down to go after her. She looked up and saw that we were coming down after her. She grabbed a hold of one of the copter blades and lifted it up with ease. That Boost was really getting through her system.

As we got closer, she swung it at us like a giant sword. It missed us by inches. We flew down to the ground, at a safe distance from Anne's newly acquired weapon.

I got a better look at Anne now. She was almost a full Eraser now. She was far past what had happened to Fang. She was basically a walking, talking wolf with opposable thumbs and long hair on her head.

We started to charge her. She took another swing. I got down on the ground and ducked while Fang jumped over it. Anne was able pick up and carry the blade, but it was so heavy, she couldn't move. There was one advantage we had over now. She could only stay in one spot as long as she held the blade, while we could move all around.

She swung it back. This time we both jumped over it. Despite the blade's size, Anne was pretty quick with it. I reached her first and punched her in her canine jaw. Fang came in and gave her a stiff kick in her gut. She staggered back a few steps, but came back swinging the blade. Both of us managed to get out of the way again, but just barely. As I ducked, I thought I felt the blade cut a couple of my hairs.

I quickly got back up and started to charge Anne. But she managed to swing the blade back towards me but I took to the air.

"Max," her voice bellowed, "are you sure you can trust Fang? He became one of us, after all."

I looked over at Fang who was keeping his distance from the blade. But it only lasted a split second. Anne was trying to get inside my head, playing mind games. Trying to get to that darkness in my heart that Asch had told me about before. But I wasn't about to let it happen. I was going to avenge him, him and all of Counter-Breed, and stop Anne once and for all.

I dove down for Anne, "That's not gonna work!" I yelled.

I came down fast, barely avoiding Anne's blade again. I went for a kick to her face but she grabbed it with one of her hands and threw me right past her.

I regained myself and started hovering in the air. I watched as Fang took a turn diving at Anne. He went for some punches, but Anne was able to dodge them all. She threw a left that hit Fang square in the jaw that sent him in the air. Anne then went for a swing with the blade but Fang ducked, but another swing prompted him to jump back.

"Fang," her voice boomed once again, "are you sure you're not jealous of Max? After all, she is the leader and she developed her powers."

I could see rage on his face from the air where I hovered. Then he yelled, "You're not getting in my head that easily."

Then I swooped down and landed at his side. We shared a look for a second, knowing that we could trust each other. Knowing that we were going to take her down, together.

We both went after her. She took yet another mighty swing, but we were able to get out of the way of it. Then we came in. I landed a left hook that sent her reeling. Then Fang came in with a right cross and then a left jab. I finished the combo with a roundhouse kick that sent Anne reeling, dropping the blade.

Anne took a few steps back. She looked up to us, setting her jaw.

"It seems I've underestimated you," she said. "But I cannot allow you to stop me, not yet."

"Oh, we don't need your permission. We're doing this for ourselves."

"Answer me this. The world is not perfect. I'm merely trying to fix that. Why do you try to stop me?"

"You know something?" said Fang, "You're right. The world isn't perfect. It definitely needs major improvements. But who are you to say that genocide is the answer?"

"Yeah," I said, "besides, if the world isn't perfect, that means you're not perfect either. Not just one person can say the world needs to be changed. And your way of doing it is just insane."

"No more insane than someone trying to stop the world from being improved."

Anne got into a position to fight. Then she jumped out at us suddenly, grabbing the both of us by our shirts. "You shall go together!" she cried, and the she tossed us into the air. Man, she was strong. We must have gone up thirty feet from her throw.

Then Anne jumped into the air to reach us. She slashed at my hip with her newly grown claws, leaving three deep scratches in it. She went for another slash at me but I ducked and kicked her away.

But then she went after Fang. He was able to dodge her attacks as all three of us dropped back to Earth. Fang and I landed a little roughly on our feet, but Anne seemed to land with grace. Boost really was a performance enhancer.

She charged at me again with great speed, but I dodged and blocked her attacks. Then I landed a straight punch that knocked her to the ground. But she shot right back up, but then Fang came in and sent a flying kick in Anne's side that sent her ten feet across the ground. She got back up and ran to Fang and cracked him one the jaw, sending him down.

I went after Anne but then she grabbed me by the throat with both of her hands. She started to choke the life out of me. I was fading fast.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang bounce back up. "Max!" he cried. He came running towards me and Anne. Then he dived at Anne, knocking her off of me. Fang delivered a kick to Anne's gut then an elbow to her face. Then she grabbed her arm and spun her around a bit by it and threw her into the air. She flailed a bit as went flying through the air and then she landed hard on the ground.

"Is that all you got?" he said in a mocking fashion.

We both came after her as she got up. But as she did, we saw that she had a handgun in her hands. "Why won't you die?!" she cried. Then she started firing away at us. We took to the air to avoid the shots. She unloaded the gun in her rage and missed every shot.

We came back down to attack her again. But as I came in she jumped about ten feet in the air to avoid me. She met with Fang in the air. Fang went for a punch, but Anne blocked it and hit him with a right cross, bloodying his lip. He fell to the ground but quickly got back up.

Anne came back down to the ground. After she landed she bent down to pick something up. It was the copter blade.

As she picked it up, Fang went after her. But she managed to kick him back and he landed hard on the ground.

"Fang!" I shouted. I went to him, only to be met with the blade right in my face. I looked over to Anne and she lifted the blade up to swing it down at me.

But then Fang came at her and grabbed her arms, stopping her from swinging the blade down. But then Anne took one of her hands and sank her claws into Fang's stomach. He let out a loud scream of pain. He let go of Anne's hands and fell to the ground.

Anne got ready to swing the blade down on Fang. My instincts to rescue him just took over. I jumped out at Anne and delivered a knee to Anne's stomach. She dropped the blade and then I went all out on her. I delivered punch after punch and kick after kick. I couldn't even keep track of how much I was hitting her.

I gave her a kick to the jaw that flipped her in the air and sent her on the ground on her stomach. I looked down at the ground and saw the blade. On a whim, I decided to try and pick it up. I was actually able to get it off the ground somewhat, but it was still too heavy for me.

But then Fang grabbed onto it with me. Together, we lifted it up to about our heads. Then we tossed it at Anne as she stood up. We didn't need to throw it that far to reach her. The rectangular blade went right through her chest and out her back about two feet. She let out a cry of agony.

After her scream, she silently said, "Damn you, Maximum Ride."

Then she slumped to the ground. It was over.

I let out a sigh. I couldn't believe she was actually dead.

I looked over to Fang. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, holding his stomach.

He sat down. Without a word, I started to examine his wound. The cuts weren't really deep, but the bleeding was worrying me. I had to stop it, but I didn't have anything that I could use.

But then I thought of the helicopter. There might have been a first-aid kit on it. I quickly went over to the remains of it and searched. I found a small one that hadn't caught fire yet.

I grabbed it and hurried back to Fang.

"Max, don't bother," he said.

"Shut up," I said, more harshly than I intended. I got some cleaning cloth out of the kit and started cleaning the blood that stained around the wound in his abs. I got some gauze and started wrapping it.

"Even if you do help me," he said, "we have no idea where we are. How are we going to get back to the others?"

"We'll find out where we are and find Dr. Martinez's from there. You have spent too much time away from us. You're losing your instincts."

Fang cracked a smile. "I've spent too much time away from you."

I looked up at his face. He was looking over to me. "I missed you, Max."

"I missed you too, Fang."

I finished setting the bandage. It was the best thing I could do with what I had in the kit.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you Max. You were always on my mind."

"Stop talking like that. You're not hurt that seriously."

"But it's true Max."

I was starting to wonder if this was really Fang. He never said things like this. Either he had lost his mind or he seriously thought he was dying.

"Fang…" I found myself speechless.

"I wanted so much to see you. But I couldn't bring myself to do it, especially after what I had done to myself."

"Fang, I couldn't stop thinking about you either. I just… I just wanted to be with you again."

I could see his face in the moonlight. His lip was a little swollen and still trickling blood. And the rest was a little banged up from the fight, but I could tell mine was too.

I was preoccupied with Fang's wounds that I hardly noticed the scratches I had on my hip that were bleeding. I started to treat myself, but Fang kind of came in and took over. I felt his hands on my body. They were rough but so gentle. I liked how it felt on me.

When he finished he said, "There. You should be good for awhile. Until we get something better."

"Thanks, Fang," I said.

"So what do we do now?"

"I guess we should just figure out where we are. But it's too late now. Maybe we should get some rest."

We found a forest and went into a branch in a tree. As we started to doze off, I saw a bright light in the distance. Then I realized it was the fire from the Facility burning down.

The Facility was gone. Anne and Jeb were gone. Without them, Re-evolution would surely fall apart.

Then I felt something that sent a shiver through me. It was Fang. He had put his arm around me. I looked to him and saw that he had just fallen asleep.

That put me at ease, knowing he was by my side. And I managed to fall asleep.


	37. Epilogue: A Stray Memory

**Disclaimer:** For the last time, I do not own Maximum Ride.

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EPILOGUE

The next day, Fang and I found a nearby town. Our wounds healed up for the most part. Now they were just red marks.

It turned out that we were somewhere in eastern Colorado. The town we were in was called Timber. We got some breakfast in a small diner using the credit card.

Then we took off for Dr. Martinez's. It was a happy reunion, but not as much as we wanted it to be.

First, there was the good news. That we defeated Anne and saw the Facility burn to the ground.

But then everyone else had the bad news for us. It turned out when Anne had fired at us from the helicopter, some of the bullets went through the rift. Iggy caught two in the arm and Gazzy caught one in the shoulder blade. Angel and Nudge managed to get away all right. But Lily wasn't so lucky.

She caught a bullet on the right side of her forehead. Dr. Martinez was able to get the bullet out, but now Lily, the only surviving member of Counter-Breed, was in a coma.

Dr. Martinez had her on a bed in her office. She didn't need a life support machine, but she had a food drip pump that went into her stomach. Dr. Martinez said that there was no way to tell when she might wake up.

We all settled into Dr. Martinez's house, and she just welcomed us in with open arms. We tried celebrating that we stopped Re-evolution. But we couldn't get as excited as we wanted to. We couldn't help but feel bad about Lily and Asch.

The next day we came up with the idea to build graves for the members of Counter-Breed who were gone. Since we couldn't get their bodies, we decided to get things that belonged to them to bury. Dr. Martinez said we could use her backyard near the woods.

The six of us went to the remains of the Counter-Breed home to find some things that had survived. I found Calypso's necklace and used that. Nudge found that Sebastian's sword had survived the explosion and would use that for his grave. Gazzy found some of Conrad's movie posters in a canister. Then I found something perfect for Asch's grave. I found a part of his keyboard had managed to survive.

Then I found something else. It was the two pictures that Asch had from when we were at ShawCorp, the one with the whole group, including me, and the one of the two of us. The frames they were in were broken and burned, but the pictures were still good for the most part. I picked them up and pulled them out of the frames. I figured I could put them with the graves.

Rather than use headstones, we used logs and stuck them in the ground and carved their names in them. We buried the items, not too deep though. Only about half a foot. Dr. Martinez got new frames for the pictures and I put them next to the graves.

I think I finally understood praying to God. It was too bad Asch had to die to have me understand it.

So we went through the next couple of days trying to move on. It was summer, so there was no school. But it would be starting in a couple of weeks and Dr. Martinez was thinking about enrolling us.

It was about five days after we came back from the Facility. It was sunset. I was sitting on the roof of the house. It reminded me of the day before I was kidnapped by Itex, when I was with Asch.

I was up there for a little while when Fang came up. He landed next to me and sat down. "Oh, here you are," he said.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"No, I was just looking for you."

Fang looked a little sunk. Something was up. He wanted to talk to me about something. And Fang never talks about anything.

"So what's up?"

Fang let out a sigh. "Do you remember the day… before your memories got erased?"

I thought about it for a minute. The last couple of days I spent with the flock were a haze. Then my head started to hurt again. I think this was the only memory I hadn't tried to recall yet.

Then the haze cleared and my head stopped hurting. I suddenly realized what it was he was talking about.

The day before everything went blank, the flock and I were camping out in the woods in northern California. That night, me and Fang were talking, one thing led to another and we ended up telling each other that we loved each other. Then we ended up kissing, and doing… other things. No, we didn't have sex, but it got pretty intense.

Then the next day, I had no memory. And I ran away in my panic.

"Yeah, I do remember," I said. "What about it?"

Fang still seemed a little depressed. "Well, when you disappeared, I thought the reason was because of that night."

"Oh, oh, Fang."

"Of course, I know that's not the reason now, but I was convinced that was the reason then. I was so determined to find you, to see if it was my fault you left, because I told you I loved you. I thought that might have scared you. Later, I couldn't stand it anymore and I went off on my own to find you. I didn't want the others to figure out what I was thinking about."

"So you were worried that I didn't love you? Even after I said I did?"

"Pretty much."

"Fang, I meant it when I said it. Just like I know you meant it."

Fang let out a smile, his depression melting away. It was great to see him smile again. It was the first one I had seen in a while. And I can't believe it came from Fang.

"I do love you, Max," he said.

"I love you too," I said.

Then we leaned in to each other and shared a kiss. I missed him so much. I missed his face. I missed his touch. I missed his lips.

When we shared that kiss, suddenly I knew everything was going to be all right. We were going to get through this. Now that Re-evolution was stopped, we could try being normal. One day Lily would wake up though, and we would have to tell her what happened to Asch.

But we would get through that as well.

Everything was going to be just fine, someday.

* * *

Thank you to all of my readers for staying with this story. I really hope you enjoyed it. It was my first fanfic and I'm glad all who reviewed, or just read, liked it.

Once again, thank you.

By the way, keep an eye out for my sequel, _One-Winged Angel_… coming soon.


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